Dr. von Zitzewitz stands accused of accepting thousands of euros from a Swiss firm in return for the granting of business favours.

In a statement released on Friday, Infineon announced that:

"Topics on the agenda of a meeting of the investment, financial and audit committee of Infineon Technologies AG held today included the preliminary inquiry concerning Dr. Andreas von Zitzewitz. The committee discussed the measures implemented on behalf of the supervisory board in response to the charges made by Mr. Schneider in March 2004. In addition to an external legal investigation, these included examinations carried out within the company by the legal department and an audit. In addition, everyone involved was subjected to repeated and detailed questioning. The resulting report, a revocation on the part of Udo Schneider and a written declaration of untenability from Dr. von Zitzewitz to the chairman of the supervisory board formed the basis for the supervisory board's earlier decision."

"The committee has come to the conclusion that the matter was comprehensively investigated at the time. The decision to continue the working relationship with Dr. von Zitzewitz was based on the fact that no evidence of misconduct could be found and that there were strong doubts about the credibility of Mr. Schneider. Mr. Schneider declined to present evidence for his accusations and subsequently retracted them publicly."

"This notwithstanding, the events have moved the committee to call for the investigation by an external body of the internal information and monitoring system with the goal of establishing whether there are any weak points in the procedures currently in place at Infineon at which might have prevented the timely detection of the alleged irregularities. This constitutes a further component of the action plan drawn up jointly by the supervisory and managing boards for the full and unconditional clarification of this matter."