[Ferro-Alloys.Com]Germany's largest steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG said that it is investigating a possible breach of duty by executive board member Mr4 Edwin Eichler in connection with antitrust violations in the railway steel market.

According to Mr Alexander Wilke, a spokesman for the steelmaker, its supervisory board hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP as well as a criminal law professor from Munich to probe the executive on behalf of the company.

ThyssenKrupp GfT Gleistechnik GmbH, a unit of the Essen based company, was fined EUR 103 million in July 2012 by Germany's Federal Cartel Office for colluding with other suppliers of rail tracks to Deutsche Bahn AG.

ThyssenKrupp said that the executive board of ThyssenKrupp Services AG, which oversaw the unit and was headed by Eichler, had taken all measures to prevent cartel related offenses.

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