Free Republic

Attorney general urged to investigate prime minister’s personal involvement in multi-billion shekel purchase, reportedly opposed by defense establishment A long-time personal lawyer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alleged to be at the center of a multi-billion shekel controversy involving Israel’s possible purchase of German submarines with state funds earmarked for security needs. David Shimron, who has spent years defending Netanyahu against dozens of reports claiming malpractice and misuse of office for personal gain, is being accused of a serious conflict of interest due to his links to the German shipbuilder attempting to sell Israel the vessels.

The US State Department has approved a request by Egypt to purchase 20 Harpoon Block II encapsulated missiles for submarines as well as related equipment and training, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced in a statement. In addition to the Harpoon missiles, the proposed sale, worth approximately USD 143 million, includes two encapsulated harpoon certification training vehicles, technical assistance, personnel training and logistics support provided by the US. The missiles will be used by Egypt’s new Type 209 submarines, built by the German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, according to military intelligence and analysis website IHS Jane’s 30. “The proposed sale...

May 11 Israel bought four German-made corvette warships on Monday to help secure its Mediterranean gas rigs, with Berlin heavily subsidizing the deal, Israel's Defence Ministry said on Monday. The ships, worth 430 million euros ($480 million), will be built by Thyssen Krupp and delivered within five years, providing significantly more fire power to Israel's navy. The German government will pay 115 million euros towards the cost. As part of its atonement for the Nazi Holocaust, Germany is committed to Israel's security and has often helped pay in the past for the cost of military equipment such as submarines. Thyssen...

STOCKHOLM—A dispute between the Swedish armed forces and ThyssenKrupp AG TKA.XE +1.39% threatens one of the German industrial giant's most-profitable operations and could shake up the growing global submarine business. The row, which is partly over export possibilities, has prompted Sweden to yank contracts for the next generation of Swedish submarines from ThyssenKrupp, the world's largest exporter of nonnuclear submarines. Sweden has signaled that it instead is considering giving the work to Swedish defense company Saab AB. Currently, Saab doesn't build manned submarines, but it acknowledges it is trying to poach engineers from ThyssenKrupp's submarine unit, which is based around...

MOBILE, Ala. -- Federal workplace safety and ThyssenKrupp AG officials are investigating how some equipment at the sprawling Calvert complex came to be coated with lead-bearing paint, and whether any workers have been exposed to lead. Lead paint is outlawed in homes in the United States because the element, when ingested, can cause blood and brain disorders. But it's still allowed in some commercial and industrial paints domestically. Internationally, lead remains common in paint, and much of ThyssenKrupp's equipment is imported.

Activists from political organization Stop the Bomb distributed fliers to the 3,500 stockholders of the German engineering and steel giant ThyssenKrupp here in this industrial city on Thursday, charging that 4.5 percent of the company's stocks are in the hands of the Iranian government. Alexander Wilke, a spokesman for ThyssenKrupp, told The Jerusalem Post that the engineering conglomerate conducted roughly €200 million in trade last year with Iran. The protest in front of the RuhrCongress center at the annual stockholder meeting took place in the wake of a joint Monday appearance of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela...

Billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has launched an audacious £12.75 billion takeover attempt on rival Arcelor of France - in a move that would see him strengthen his position at the top of the world's steel industry. Mittal Steel, Mr Mittal's Dutch listed steel giant, said today it had offered €28.21 a share for Arcelor in an €18.6 billion bid that, if successful, would create the world's biggest steelmaker and the first producer capable of making more than 100 tons of steel a day. As he pitched his offer at a 27 per cent premium to last night's closing price...

IEV, Ukraine - Hundreds of workers lined up outside a major steel factory amid barbed wire and police barricades Thursday as tensions spiked in a dispute involving dueling shareholders in the lucrative factory, which the government alleges was improperly privatized. Officials from Interpipe Corp. - Ukraine's largest steel corporation and owner of the Nikopol Ferroalloy plant - charged that a government agency and an allied bank was trying to take over factory in Nikopol. Neither officials at the state-run State Property Fund nor officials with the Kiev-based Privat Bank, a minority shareholder in the factory, could be reached for comment...