In 2006 a suspicion of corruption at Siemens became public. At first the reports spoke of about 20 million euros moved out of the company through shell firms. The proceedings ended in December 2008 with fines of about 1.2 billion euros. The total cost to Siemens later reached 2.2 billion euros. The fines did not end the matter. US authorities appointed Theo Waigel, a former German finance minister, as an independent Compliance Monitor. For four years he checked whether Siemens kept to rules and laws.