(PTI): Siemens risks hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority for providing Iran with surveillance technology.
Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Germany’s Siemens and Finland’s Nokia, recently sold Iran’s telecommunications company a monitoring center that can intercept and catalog e-mails, telephone calls and Internet data.
“The mayor has been working to ensure that the city divests from any company that does business with Iran,” Matt Szabo, a spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said.
“So obviously any connection Siemens or any other potential contractor has to Iran would be of great concern to the mayor when considering a contract,” he added.
The news comes as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority board votes on whether to extend options to an Italian company, Ansaldobreda (AB), to make 100 rail cars for the Los Angeles subway, or to rebid the contract.
Siemens, considered the strongest contender for the contract, hopes to secure the $300M MTA contract during next week’s board meeting.
Senior MTA officials, citing Ansaldobreda’s previous delays in delivering cars and its failure to meet MTA specifications, have announced they are dissatisfied with the Italian company’s performance.
“Siemens has laid a lot of groundwork that would position them well to compete for the contract if we don’t do the AB deal,” Katz said.
The Italian company also owned by Finmeccanica, a conglomerate of defense, aerospace, energy and transportation companies, known to have secured deals to provide Iran with 44 gas turbines through its subsidiary Ansaldo Energia.
Whether the MTA should also avoid doing business with AnsaldoBreda “is a good question,” Katz added.
Tags: Iran contract, Siemens