SAO PAULO: Brazilian judges have frozen assets worth $26 million from a cartel including French engineering firm Alstom and Germany's Siemens suspected of price-rigging during bidding for Sao Paulo's metro rail systems.

In a statement, they said they froze the assets of five people, including three former heads of Sao Paulo commuter rail company CPTM, and of three companies, "including two suspected of having been used to commit crimes."

The text, issued late Thursday, did not specifically name the companies involved although it refers to the "Alstom-Siemens" case.

It noted that the money frozen would be used to "compensate the state and society".

The statement said the money was found on "bank accounts, investment instruments and shares owned by the accused as part of the probe into crimes of corruption, tax evasion and money laundering related to bidding for the metro (rail system)."

In August, Sao Paulo state prosecutors launched a probe based on documents from Brazil's antitrust authority CADE into alleged price-fixing by several international companies involved in bidding for the city's metro rail systems from 1999 to 2009. According to Brazilian press reports, Alstom, Siemens and other foreign firms such as Spain's CAF, Japan's Mitsui and Bombardier of Canada were involved in the price-rigging scheme.

The daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Alstom paid $20 million just in 1990 to win public contracts in this country.

Last month, Siemens said it was ready to discuss compensation should it be proven it engaged in price-fixing.

The alleged price-fixing occurred under the rule of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) in Sao Paulo state.

Sao Paulo Gov. Geraldo Alckmin's PSDB, which is in opposition to President Dilma Rousseff's ruling Workers Party nationally, has denied any wrong-doing.