Turkmenistan: German Car Maker Fined in US Court for Bribery

German carmaker Daimler AG will pay the US government $93.6 million in criminal fines and $91.4 million in civil penalties after pleading guilty to bribing government officials with cash and gifts in at least 22 countries including Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

"Using offshore bank accounts, third-party agents and deceptive pricing practices, [Daimler] saw foreign bribery as a way of doing business," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the US Justice Department's Criminal Division said on April 1.

According to court documents, Daimler's bribes in Turkmenistan included birthday gifts worth $400,000 to a "high-level executive official of Turkmenistan's government" and the German translation of his "personal manifesto" at a cost of $250,000.

The only Turkmen government official known to have penned a "personal manifesto" is ex-President Saparmurat Niyazov who died in 2006.