Wärtsilä employee denies charges
The Finnish state prosecutor has decided to bring charges against a Wärtsilä employee in the so-called Gotland corruption case. The employee is being accused of offering and giving a bribe to the technical director at the Swedish shipowner. The employee in question denies any guilt. According to the state prosecutor, there are no grounds for suspecting the other persons acting in the case on behalf of Wärtsilä of offering or giving bribes.
In the same context the prosecutor will also submit a demand for a corporate penalty to be levelled at Wärtsilä Finland Oy. In the company’s opinion the charges against both the employee and the company are groundless.
Wärtsilä has conducted an internal investigation into the matter and considers that the company and its employee were deceived when the payments intended for the shipowner ended up with a private individual owing to incorrect information given by a shipowner representative. This opinion is also supported by a decision of a Swedish court of appeal, which discharged employees of a Wärtsilä competitor from suspicions related to the same ship project. Similarly the Visby lower court in Sweden has confirmed that the issue is not corruption.
Wärtsilä considers it important that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. Wärtsilä has also revised its internal operational guidelines to prevent ambiguities in the future.
Further information: Kari Hietanen, Group Vice President, Legal Affairs and HR, tel. +358 10 709 5609.
