Siemens Energy agrees to settlement with US in case over gas turbine contracts

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Siemens Energy has agreed to pay $104 million to settle an investigation with U.S. authorities, it said, after it used stolen trade secrets to inflate bids for contracts five years ago.

The proposed settlement with a U.S. court in Virginia revolves around allegations of theft of trade secrets that Siemens Energy had used to bid to provide gas turbine equipment and servicing to Dominion Energy Inc in 2019.

The settlement is subject to approval by the court, which is scheduled for Dec. 5.

An initial case, brought by Siemens Energy rival General Electric, was settled between the two companies in 2021.

Siemens Energy on Tuesday said the new settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice would resolve the case, reiterating that the company discovered the misconduct in 2020 and “voluntarily reported the incident to the customer” and rivals General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Siemens Energy, which reports full-year results on Nov. 13, in its fiscal third quarter report in August cited negative one-offs related to a legacy project at its gas services division.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; editing by Barbara Lewis)