Siemens Corporation and Siemens Medical Solutions have agreed to pay a $175,000 financial penalty to settle an investigation by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the companies failed to disclose corporate felony convictions as required under FCC rules.
Applicants for FCC wireless licenses are required to disclose any prior felony convictions in their licensing applications. According to the FCC, Siemens and some of its subsidiary companies failed to disclose information on felony convictions on applications filed between 2007 and mid-2015.
Specifically, Siemens AG, the parent company of license applicant entities, pleaded guilty in 2008 to criminal charges of violating the internal accounting provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising from bribes and kickbacks paid to foreign government officials. That plea resulted in Siemens paying fines of over $800 million to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As part of its settlement with the FCC over its failure to report these felony convictions, Siemens and Siemens Medical have also agreed to adopt a compliance program to prevent disclosure failures in future filings and licensing applications, and to regularly report to the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau on its compliance efforts.
Read the complete text of the FCC’s Order against Siemens.
