14 DAY TRIAL // It has been three years since the investigation started, but the German prosecutors have found out if HP really did bribe Russian officials in the 1990s.
As it happens, the company itself may escape repercussions, but three executives have been charged with major bribery accusations: Hilmar Lorenz, Päivi Tiippana and Ken Willett.
Claimed accomplice Ralf Krippner is suffering severe a legal backlash too.
The charges are that they funneled to Russia's Prosecutor General Office, €7.5 million ($9.7 million) in bribes through shell accounts and a German subsidiary.
In exchange, they were allowed to make a supply deal for PCs that earned HP €35 million ($45.3 million).
Tiippana and Willett plan to fight the accusations, and HP intends to distance itself from the indictment, as it was the “old” HP company that operated at the time. The scandal is severe either way.