Siemens extends amnesty offer in corruption probe

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens AG has extended its amnesty offer to employees in connection with a probe into a corruption scandal until the end of February, the company said on Thursday.

Siemens said in a statement the number of additional inquiries received had increased substantially and therefore Siemens wanted to provide employees with more of an opportunity to make use of the program.

So far 66 employees had come forward in connection with the amnesty, the company said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Siemens are investigating whether employees of Siemens, one of the world's largest electrical and industrial engineering companies, paid 100s of millions of euros in bribes for telecommunications and other contracts.

Siemens said 54 cases were under review, two applications for amnesty had been rejected and 10 granted.

Siemens announced in November that it would grant amnesty to company whistleblowers to speed up investigations.

The scandal has already cost the 160-year-old company 1.6 billion euros ($2.38 billion), Chief Executive Peter Loescher said last week.

It also led to the resignation of Loescher's predecessor, Klaus Kleinfeld, and Chairman Heinrich von Pierer last year. Neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

Siemens shares were down 1.63 percent at 84.88 euros by 9:51a.m. ET, underperforming the DJ Stoxx European technology index, which was down 0.53 percent.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske; Editing by Greg Mahlich)