DaimlerAg

Over the past five years, the U.S. Department of Justice along with the Securities and Exchange Commission have been investigating allegations that German automaker Daimler and three of its subsidiaries paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes through offshore bank accounts to secure contracts for its vehicles.

According to court documentation released today, the bribes took place between 1998 and 2008 in at least 22 countries that included China, Russia, Egypt and Greece. In one such case, it is alleged that Daimler made payments to officials in Iraq under the Oil for Food program.

The prodigal son returns. As with the Biblical parable, a well-loved son (ably played in real life by Wolfgang Bernhard) leaves the comfort of home (Bernhard previously served as Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche's second in command) and embarks on a journey away from his family.

Unlike our age-old story, though, Bernhard didn't exactly fall on hard times away from the loving care of this father. In fact, Bernhard served as chairman at Volkswagen between 2005 and 2007 before returning to Daimler in February of 2009 to lead its van business. Not the hero's welcome our Biblical character got when he finally ventured back home - at least not right away.

Nerves are frazzled in Stuttgart over the troubles facing Chrysler. Let's not forget that Daimler still has a skin in the Chrysler game, and while everyone natters and frets about whether or not Fiat will prove to be the Savior Of Auburn Hills, execs are also thinking about the worst-case scenario in the halls of Daimler.

A master mechanic and two clerks, among others, are being investigated for intentionally sabotaging Mercedes cars being built at the Sindelfingen factory. Allegedly, repair shops in the area that weren't part of the Daimler corporation were bribing workers with gifts, trips, and cash to alter the cars so that the repair shops could get the contracts to fix them.

The sabotage included scratching the cars, loosening clamps and bolts, as well as -- incredibly -- putting foreign liquids into brake lines. According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, the cars affected were C-, E-, and S-Class. The Stuttgart prosecutor's office estimates the costs to Mercedes in the many of millions, but the greatest irony is this: the workers under investigation were part of the quality control department.

So, just what is a 19.9% stake in America's third largest automaker worth? Um, nothing. So says Daimler, which owns exactly that amount. The German company claims that, for accounting purposes at least, there is absolutely no value in its part-ownership of Chrysler. Just about a year ago, Daimler estimated that its share of Chrysler was worth some $1.17 billion. The remaining 80.1% was sold to Cerberus Capital Management last August for $7.4 billion.

Hyundai, now a world-class engine manufacturer, may lend engine technology to Mercedes-Benz for a future four-cylinder powerplant. It was just a few short years ago that DaimlerChrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai banded together in the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) to build the so-called World Engine (pictured at right). The GEMA engine, with displacements ranging from 1.8-liters up to 2.4-liters, is found under the hood of more than a handful of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai products.

Click on the image to view high-res shots of the Mercedes F700 concept