HP employees indicted in German graft probe

Current and former Hewlett Packard employees have been indicted in Germany as part of a nearly three-year probe into bribes paid for a multimillion-euro Russian contract, the US firm said.

"The German Public Prosecutors Office has issued an indictment against a small number of individuals, including one current and some former HP employees," a company spokesman said Wednesday.

"HP itself is free of any charges," he said, adding that the company has been named as a "side participant" in the proceedings.

The naming of HP could expose the company to fines and other penalties if the court finds that the firm benefited from a crime, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the indictments.

The investigation concerns some eight million euros ($10 million) in kickbacks paid from 2001 to 2006 to secure a 35-million-euro contract to provide equipment to the Russian Prosecutor General's office, through a German firm.

Germany and Russia launched the investigation in 2010. HP said it was "fully cooperating" with authorities.

(c) 2012 AFP