U.S. Justice Ministry accused German leading motor company Daimler of corruption. Under the ministry’s report, from 1998-to 2008 the company broke the law in at least 22 states, Deutsche Welle reports.

The investigation conducting panel discovered that the bribes to officials in Russia, Turkey, Egypt and China are a common practice in Daimler. They aimed at closing deals on car sale estimated at several million dollars.

Inter alia it is accused of grafting Iraqi authorities under Saddam Hussein for making car sale contracts breaching terms of UN project “Oil against food”.

April 1, a Washington court will hear the Daimler case.

Daimler is likely to pay as much as $185m in a pre-trial period, of which $93.6m to Ministry of Justice and $91.4m — to U.S. Securities and exchange commission, Associated Press informs

The investigation was launched after one of the fired employees disclosed the information about Daimler's secret accounts and bribes.

S.T.