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Nigeria Launches Daimler Bribery Investigation

Despite having settled the bribery investigation in the US this April, the pressure is not yet over for German carmaker Daimler. Nigeria has announced this week it will look into Daimler's alleged payoff of government officials.

According to Faridi Waziri, leader of the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the investigation will also look at Anammco, the company born in the 1970s from the collaboration of Daimler, the government and local investors.

"We opened investigations into the Daimler/Anammco scam recently following a judgment in the U.S. where some Nigerians were convicted in relation to the Daimler bribery scam," Waziri said in a statement cited by Autonews.

"So far, we have interviewed about four officials and representatives of Daimler and Anammco in Nigeria."

The investigation is based on the US Securities and Exchange Commission papers, which led to the $185 million settlement earlier this year. According to Waziri, the crimes Daimler and Anammco are investigated for occurred between March 1999 and November 2002.

The two companies are supposed to have paid a total of £554,396 ($800,000) to consultants for a sale of vehicles to Savannah Sugar Company. Additionally, during the All-Africa Games (AAG) games in 2003, Anammco agreed to give $500,000 and service the vehicles used in the events.

To get to the bottom of it all, Waziri has asked for access to the US official papers.

"We have equally gone ahead to seek the assistance of the AGF to obtain the certified true copy of the US judgment through MLAT from the America authorities,"
Waziri added. "We are working hard to see how we can crack some of these high profile cases with international dimensions."
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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