Corruption scandal

The Munich-based company's heavy vehicle division, and its turbo division, which makes compressors and turbines, will pay 75.3 million euros each.

The Munich state court fined the vehicle division for failing to follow supervisory regulations. The commercial vehicle division was found to have paid kickbacks "in numerous cases" in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The court also found that under the turbo division's former chief executive, Juergen Maus, bribery was used in two cases involving foreign public officials and in six cases involving commercial transactions, and that these occurred "with the knowledge or participation of the accused."

The court found that between 2004 and September 2008, bribes were paid "to important decision makers on the customers' side, including public officials," in return for purchases of MAN buses and trucks.

A MAN spokesman said the company's decision to accept the fines ends the investigation against them. But the state prosecutor's office say they continue to investigate about 100 former employees and customers of the company.

Cash for contracts

Investigators had raided the company's offices around Germany in early May.

Authorities believe that millions of euros were inappropriately paid to buyers in Algeria, Greece, Italy, Israel, Libya and other countries. Some payments were routed through the bank accounts of relatives and friends to disguise their real origin.

MAN is the second high-profile company to face massive corruption charges recently. Last year, US and German authorities fined telecommunications and engineering giant Siemens one billion euros after the company admitted paying kickbacks to obtain multi-million dollar contracts.

Corporate fallout

Several top executives at MAN have resigned in recent weeks. Anton Weinmann, who headed the company's vehicle division, left the job in November, saying he wanted the firm to have a "fresh start at the management level."

Former CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, also cited a desire for a "fresh start" in his November resignation statement. He was not implicated in the bribery probe.

The company's former financial director, Karlheinz Hornung, has said that his resignation is not related to the investigation.

MAN employs nearly 50,000 people around the world, and last year's sales totaled almost 15 billion euros.

However, the economic downturn has severely affected MAN's vehicle division. It reported a third quarter net profit of 6 million euros - down from 302 million euros during the same period last year.

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Editor: Ranty Islam