A manager with steelproducer Krupp Stahl AG &lt;KRPG.F> was arrested yesterday for
fraud and falsifying documents, the state prosecutor's office
said today.
    Two executives of steel trading companies in North Rhine
Westphalia and Hanover were also arrested for aiding the Krupp
manager, a spokesman for the office said. The office identified
the manager only as Alex I.
    He said the manager is charged with faking signatures on
forms ordering large shipments of heavy steel plate from one of
the trading companies for which Krupp AG paid.
    The spokesman said the manager ordered the shipments, which
on paper were for Krupp Stahl AG in Bochum but were delivered
to the trade house near Hanover.
    The three men are also accused of pocketing profits from
the sale of the steel plates, but both Krupp and the
prosecutor's office declined comment on how much money was
involved.
    The Hanover daily Hannoversche Allgemeine said in an
article today the shipments' order value totalled 100 million
marks, while another local daily, the Neue Presse, put the
value at 50 million marks.
 REUTER
