Siemens Probe Widens

Munich senior prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld said two employees from the internal audit and accounting unit at Siemens fixed-line communications division were arrested on Wednesday.

Six people are now being held in custody, after one of the five men detained by police earlier in the week was released.

The Austrian Press Agency reported that a former Siemens employee arrested in Austria last week was transferred to Germany on Wednesday.

Schmidt-Sommerfeld said the men had "banded together" to engaged in fraud at the expense of Siemens through secret bank accounts set up in other countries.

There was no "concrete knowledge of the money's whereabouts," he said.

Secrets accounts in Austria, Switzerland

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, nearly 70 million euros of the embezzled funds were deposited in three accounts at the Tirol Raiffeisenlandesbank in the Austrian town of Innsbruck.

During the second half of the 1990s, this money was transferred to many overseas bank accounts, the paper reported.

Italian authorities are conducting their own investigations into the Innsbruck bank accounts. They suspect Siemens of giving out millions of euros in bribes to enter the Italian telecommunications market in the 1990s.

More than 100 million euros also flowed through banks accounts in the Austrian town of Salzburg, and 35 to 40 million euros were reportedly channeled through Swiss banks.

Bank statements reveal high ranking officials in Nigeria received nearly five million euros, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. Other funds went to Syria.

Siemens silent on investigation

Siemens is not commenting on the widening investigation. A Siemens' spokesperson said the Munich-based company was "interested in further explanations, and supports the prosecutor's efforts."

The Munich prosecutor's office said it would have no further information to make public before Dec. 4.