UANI

 "A year after German engineering giant Siemens AG pledged to retreat from Iran under international pressure, it is grappling with a thorny problem: a big jump in revenue in the Islamic republic. Siemens has kept a promise not to pursue new projects in Iran. But its existing contracts there underscore how international efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions have had only limited impact on the state's ability to draw on the technology and expertise it needs to maintain its broader infrastructure. The company's Iranian business also shows how Tehran depends on a powerful tool to maintain its commercial ties to foreign companies. The rules that govern international commerce make it tough for Siemens to sever ties with Iran even if it wanted to. 'Otherwise we could be accused of breaching contracts and face compensatory damages,' Siemens CEO Peter Löscher said at the company's shareholder meeting in January. The U.S. State Department and the European Union declined to comment on Siemens' business in Iran. In Siemens' last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the company's revenue in Iran rose more than 20% to about €680 million ($967 million) from the year before and more than 50% over a two-year period, said people familiar with the matter. Revenue for this year is still unclear." (The Wall Street Journal, "Siemens' Business Surge in Iran," 4/5/11)

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Over the last three presidential administrations, the United States government has granted Siemens 50 special licenses to do business in Iran. (New York Times, "Companies with Permission to Bypass Sanctions," 12/24/10)

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"This license authorized the company to export ultrasound equipment to Iran; the names of the purchasers were redacted by OFAC." (New York Times, "Licenses Granted to U.S. Companies Run the Gamut," 12/24/10)

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"Nokia-Siemens Networks on Wednesday, June 2 admitted its share of the blame for Iran's brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrators last year after selling mobile phone surveillance to the authoritarian regime.

The Finnish-German telecoms joint venture was at the centre of an ethics controversy last year when it emerged that it had supplied surveillance technology to two Iranian mobile phone operators. The technology was used to track down dissidents amid the mass protests following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.

Apart from the crackdown on demonstrators, which saw 36 confirmed deaths, Iranian authorities blocked websites such as Twitter and Facebook, jammed and tracked cell phone calls and text messages. They used the so-called monitoring centre acquired from Nokia-Siemens in 2008 to carry out the work."

(Businessweek.com, "Nokia-Siemens Rues Iran Crackdown Role," 6/3/2010)

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"Siemens, a sprawling conglomerate involved in everything from engineering to health care, entered the Iranian market in 1974. In 2008, Nokia-Siemens, a joint-project with Finnish telecom Nokia, provided Iran's state-owned telecom company with technology that allowed it to intercept the internet communications of its citizens. The sale prompted controversy, though the technology is also required by Western countries. Siemens, separate from Nokia-Siemens, also is a large federal contractor and received several contracts stemming from the Obama administration's economic stimulus package while operating in Iran. In February, Siemens announced it would pull out of Iran." 

From 2000-2009, the company was a recipient of $.3.2 billion US federal funds.  They have withdrawn their business investments in Iran.  (The New York Times, "Profiting from Iran, and the US," 3/6/2010)

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"German engineering conglomerate Siemens (SIEGn.DE) said on Tuesday it would reject any further orders from Iran as world powers consider imposing wider sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear activity...

Siemens, which is Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate, was aware of the sensitivities attached to doing business in Iran, Chief Executive Peter Loescher said. 'Some time ago, we reduced our business activities with customers in Iran,' Loescher said, responding to questions at a shareholders meeting.

 The Siemens board decided at the start of October not to agree to any further orders with customers in Iran, he added, noting, however, that existing orders would be fulfilled.Loescher said there were still bids submitted by Siemens before October 2009. If they were not accepted, it would mean new business in Iran would end by mid-2010.

 Siemens, which makes high-tech machinery as well as domestic appliances, generates an annual 500 million euros ($704.5 million) in sales from Iran, which last year represented 0.7 percent of the firm's overall sales." (Reuters, "Siemens Says to Reject New Orders from Iran," 1/26/10)

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Through 2010, Siemens signed key oil and gas-related contracts with Iran. In April 2010, the Tehran Times reported that Siemens signed a contract with the Lordegan Petrochemical Company of Iran to manufacture equipment for its petrochemical complex. 

 Prior to that, Siemens reportedly signed a $1.44 billion deal to build 100 gas turbo-compressors for the National Iranian Gas Company. (AFP, “Iran in billion-euro gas deal with Germany" 1/20/10).

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In correspondence with the SEC in March 2009, Siemens revealed:

At present, we have direct or indirect majority ownership interests in three Iranian subsidiaries, and minority ownership interests (20% and 4.9%, respectively) in two Iranian companies. In Iran, we are mainly engaged in providing goods and services to organizations in the public power generation, power transmission, public transportation and healthcare fields. The main part of our business in Iran is conducted by our Energy Sector, although we also have some activity in our Industry Sector and, to a much smaller extent, our Healthcare Sector. Unsurprisingly, given our business focus, much of our business in Iran is for government-controlled agencies and enterprises. We estimate that, in fiscal 2008, approximately 80% of our EUR 438 million in sales in Iran came from the Iranian government or entities controlled by it, with most of those sales in the Energy Sector. In the Energy Sector, we offer gas and steam turbines and generators, with an emphasis on combined cycle gas and steam power plants that serve the public electricity grid. We supply products and solutions for the production, transport and processing of oil, gas and water, which are used in the oil and gas industries as well as other industries.