Reinhard Siekaczek, the former Siemens employee, largely responsible for Siemens’s accounting system that hid bribes for five years, and who was charged with breach of trust under German law, made the following statements about his activities, the bribes, and the consequences:

“People will only say about Siemens that they were unlucky and that they broke the 11th Commandment. The 11th Commandment is: ‘Don’t get caught.’”103

“It was about keeping the business unit alive and not jeopardizing thousands of jobs overnight.”

“I was not the man responsible for the bribery.

I organized the cash.”

“I would have never thought I’d go to jail for my company. Sure, we joked about it, but we thought if our actions ever came to light, we’d get together and there would be enough people to play a game of cards.”

Can you describe what level of ethical development is involved here? What did he miss in his evaluation of his conduct and the risks? What lines did Siemens cross in getting to this level of bribery payments? What rationalizations do you see in his comments?. LO58