Infineon's Andreas von Zitzewitz has resigned over allegations of corruption. The move leaves a hole at the top of the German chipmaker's command structure. Zitzewitz, who had been a board member at Infineon since 1999, became the head of the group's memory chip business at the beginning of the year.

"Dr. von Zitzewitz is under investigation... in context with payments made for contracts regarding motorsport sponsoring," Infineon said in a statement, adding the company itself was not being probed and was cooperating with the authorities.
Zitzewitz and another former Infineon manager are suspected of having nudged suppliers to sign sponsorship contracts for motor racing events. Prosecutors suspect Zitzewitz of accepting kickbacks amounting to some 259,000 euros ($313,200).