Russian prosecutors have asked the United States to pass on information about corrupt practices at German auto giant Daimler AG to help investigate allegations of bribery in Russia, the prosecutor general said on Wednesday.
Daimler was fined $185 million by a U.S. court earlier this month after admitting to paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to foreign governments. Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Moscow was waiting for information that could be relevant to a similar case in Russia.
Media reports earlier alleged corruption played a part in the purchase of Mercedes vehicles by Russian law-enforcement agencies, including the Prosecutor General's Office.
"When the Justice Ministry announced that the purchase of Mercedes cars for law-enforcement agencies was linked to corruption, we initiated an internal check and requested official documents from the U.S. Justice Department on this investigation." Chaika said.
Chaika said the request was sent to the United States three weeks ago but as yet no information had been received.
The Russian business daily Kommersant said that in 2000-2005 Russian officials received some 5.02 million euros ($6.7 million) and around 80,000 German marks ($54,000) as payoffs from the German auto giant, which accounts for 7.8% of the total value of the government contracts signed during that period.
The paper quoted a source close to the Russian security service charged with protecting top officials as saying a total of 100 Mercedes were purchased under compromised contracts.
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti)
