A corruption affair at German chipmaker Infineon has begun to lift the lid on one of Germany`s biggest corporate mysteries: the sudden departure of Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher in March 2004.
In an emerging public row between Infineon`s supervisory board chairman Max-Dietrich Kley and Schumacher, Kley told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published yesterday that Schumacher was ousted by his board colleagues.
In March 2004, the three other management board members -- Peter Fischl, Peter Bauer and von Andreas von Zitzewitz -- requested an urgent meeting, saying they could not work with Schumacher, Kley said in the newspaper`s online edition.
"On 17 March, they told me that their relationship with Schumacher was damaged beyond repair and underpinned that with facts and observations," he said.
Schumacher resigned on 25 March. Both he and Infineon have maintained ever since that his reasons were personal.
The Munich state prosecutor is investigating allegations that von Zitzewitz, who was Infineon`s chief operating officer, and another Infineon manager, who resigned last year, received kickbacks of up to 259 000 euros for arranging motor sports sponsorship contracts.
Von Zitzewitz resigned on Saturday after the allegations became public. He declined to comment on Wednesday when contacted by Reuters, saying he wanted to wait until the investigation was completed.
Kley, who stepped in as interim CEO when Schumacher resigned, issued a statement on Monday saying Infineon had investigated these allegations in March 2004, but had taken no action because it had found no proof.
Following Kley`s statement, Schumacher`s lawyers responded with a letter to him distancing Schumacher from the scandal and warning Kley they would sue if he repeated what they considered an attempt to implicate Schumacher.
"Mr Schumacher was not involved in the details or the development of sponsorship deals at any time," said the letter, excerpts of which were published in the Handelsblatt and Financial Times Deutschland newspapers yesterday.
When contacted by Reuters, a spokesman for Schumacher confirmed the quotes from the letter were accurate. However, the spokesman was later unavailable for comment on the Kley Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung interview.
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