According to Associated Press (AP), Johannes Feldmayer, a former Siemens board member, was sentenced to “two years probation and fined euro 229,000 ($291,000) for breach of trust and tax evasion.” Wilhelm Schelsky, the former head of the independent AUB labour organisation, received a prison sentence of “four-and-a-half years for charges of aiding breach of trust with fraud and tax evasion.”

The Financial Times writes that the trial “shed a light on how some of Siemens’ former managers tried to break the power of IG Metall, Germany’s most powerful labour union, by secretly financing AUB.” According to the same article, AUB helped Siemens to “wrest concessions from employees on pay and working hours for different factories in the 1990s.”

“Prosecutors had sought a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Feldmayer and six years for Schelsky. They will decide whether to appeal after analyzing the ruling,” reports International Herald Tribune. Lawyers for Feldmayer and Schelsky said they would appeal the verdict.

Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher apologised to IG Metall and appealed to Siemens’ managers to recognise the lessons in Feldmayer’s case, writes AP.

The court decision, reports Deutsche Welle, “comes in the wake of a wider two-year scandal over corruption and kickbacks at Siemens that has rocked the 160-year-old company. The allegations of corruption have already led to several resignations among top management, including former chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld.”

Three former Siemens executives have been sentenced to suspended prison terms so far, but no board members to date, according to Wall Street Journal. The same article notes that several other countries are investigating alleged bribery by Siemens, which recently set aside “€1 billion [US $1.3 billion] for expected fines.”