The third project is the GSI project, gas circuit breakers. In 2001, it was decided to purchase additional circuit breakers with an exemption from a tender. At the end of the day, the IEC's tender committee approved an engagement with Siemens in the amount of about €22 million.
The affair that is the subject of the indictment deals with the sum of approximately $9.5 million transferred by Siemens International for the purpose of paying bribes to IEC employees, and it was the one that entered into tenders and engagements with the IEC that is the subject of the indictment. Siemens Israel served as the local arm of Siemens International, took part in the bribe payments and received payment in the amount of €480,000 as a commission for Siemens Worldwide winning IEC tenders (section 31 of the indictment).
According to the indictment, Siemens Israel bears responsibility for the criminal offenses attributed to it in the indictment by virtue of the criminal actions and thoughts of H.H. Weiss, Aharonson and Hirsch as members of Siemens Israel, by virtue of section 32 of the Penal Law (section 32 of the indictment).
1.3. The facts regarding the state's witness agreements as they arise from the indictment
There is no dispute between the parties, as emerges from the preliminary arguments and their response, that the accuser signed state witness agreements with H.H. Aharonson and Hirsch, in the framework of which the state undertook not to prosecute them at all. The state also granted Mr. Weiss immunity against their consent to come and testify (since, according to the claim, under German law, where Mr. Weiss lived, he could not be compelled to testify). Two state witness agreements were signed with Mr. Aharonson. The first, in 2005, in which Siemens Israel was explicitly granted immunity from investigation and prosecution, and the second, in 2014, in which Siemens Israel was not granted similar immunity. In 2014, a state witness agreement was also signed with Mr. Hirsch, and Mr. Weiss was granted immunity from prosecution against his testimony. Below, I will refer to all of the agreements as state witness agreements, since with regard to the preliminary arguments, the differences between them are irrelevant, while all three of them have been granted immunity from prosecution against their testimony.