The German-based carmaker Daimler has been...

At a hearing on April 1 in a federal court in Washington, Daimler AG"s Russian business Mercedes-Benz Russia SAO, and its German subsidiary, Export and Trade Finance GmbH (ETF), pleaded guilty to committing the offences.

On March 23, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Daimler AG, which produces Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, of bribing officials in 22 countries, including China, Russia, Thailand, Greece, and Iraq, from 1998 through 2008 to obtain government contracts for car deliveries.

The Russian business daily Kommersant said that in 2000-2005 alone, Russian officials received some 5.02 million euros ($6.7 million) and around 80,000 German marks (more than $54,000) as government contract payoffs from the German auto giant, which accounts for 7.8% of the total worth of the contracts signed during that period.

Among the cars delivered to Russia under such contracts were Mercedes for top Russian officials, including the president, the prime minister, top judges,

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