MUNICH, Germany, April 20 (UPI) -- German prosecutors are targeting a former Greek defense minister in a corruption investigation involving the sale of four German Type 214 submarines to Greece.
Prosecutors in Munich claim that Akis Tsohatzopoulos, the Greek defense minister from 1996-2000 accepted bribes in a deal involving four submarines built by German company Ferrostaal, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reports.
Tsohatzopoulos strongly denied the allegations.
"I have never asked for or received money or other advantages in connection with the sale of submarines to Greece," he told Der Spiegel.
The Munich prosecutors have named Tsohatzopoulos in connection with proceedings they launched against two former Ferrostaal top managers. The corruption case affects hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to win contracts in Greece and Turkmenistan.
The Ferrostaal deal for the subs, built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, was secured after kickback payments to several government and military officials, with a significant sum also ending up in the hands of Tsohatzopoulos, Der Spiegel cites the prosecution's charge sheet as saying. Tsohatzopoulos has been a subject of unrelated corruption inquiries in Greece.
The country's current defense minister, Evangelos Venizelos, last month accused German companies including Siemens, Ferrostaal and its former parent MAN as encouraging corruption.
It would be naive to believe that German arms sales are free from bribery, an expert familiar with the industry said last year.
"It's not unusual that major export deals are linked to bribery payments and that's true for the arms industry as it is for most big export industries," said Otfried Nassauer, director of the Berlin Information Center for Trans-Atlantic Security, a security think tank. "If a submarine costs 500 million euros ($725 million), then it's easy to hide a few millions here and there."
There are rumors that German companies sold submarine technology to South Africa when it was still under an embargo. It is also alleged that senior managers of German and French companies received bribery payments for arms deals with South Africa.
Germany is one of the world's major arms exporters. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the country is No. 3 in the global market, trumped only by Russia and the United States.
Companies including ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann develop high-quality submarines, ships, armored vehicles and tanks. And European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., a multinational giant producing several models of airplanes and helicopters, has a strong German profile.
