Siemens' Iraq Deal

The deal comes only a week after the company was fined a record $1.4 billion by German and US authorities after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

Attempting to move past the bribery scandal, Siemens Turbines Executive Wolfgang Dehen said Monday at a Baghdad signing ceremony that the Iraq deal was big business for the tainted turbine maker.

"This is one of the biggest orders Siemens has ever booked in the Middle East," he said.

The new power plants have a total capacity of 3,150 megawatts and are set to go on line by 2010 and 2011.

Siemens is also to supply high-voltage switchgear, transformers instrumentation and control systems for the power plants as part of the package. The deal's brokers are yet to specify whether the plants will be erected by the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity or by general contractors.

The Iraqi ministry has been struggling to end constant power outages and restore damaged oil and gas-fired power stations.

Corruption scandal

Munich-based Siemens agreed last week to pay the extensive fines in Germany and the US after it became embroiled in the bribery scandal in November 2006, leading to investigations in at least a dozen countries.

The company is alleged to have bribed officials approximately 4,000 times to the tune of 1.3 billion euros between 2000 and 2006 with the goal of winning contracts abroad.

The case became the biggest bribery scandal in German corporate history. Siemens has vowed to ensure through strict oversight mechanisms that all its future business would be graft-free.