BAE Systems agrees to pay £286m fine
The UK defence company has agreed to pay fines totalling £286 million to settle a long-running corruption case.
Also In The News
|
By Alistair Potter. |  |
Friday, 05, Feb 2010 05:11
By Alex Plough
UK defence company BAE Systems has agreed to pay fines totalling £286 million to settle a long-running corruption case made by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the US department of justice.
The firm will plead guilty to two charges following an investigation into contracts that BAE won in countries including Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa.
The move was announced simultaneously in London and Washington this afternoon. In the US, the company will plead guilty to charges of false accounting to settle allegations of bribery over the record breaking al-Yamamah arms sales to Saudi Arabia, as well as other corruption allegations over deals made in central Europe.
The SFO also said that some of the fine will go to Tanzania as an "ex-gratia payment for the benefit of the people", after it investigated a contract in which an overpriced military radar was sold to the country.
"I am very pleased with the global outcome achieved collaboratively with the DoJ," said the SFO director, Richard Alderman.
"This is a first and it brings a pragmatic end to a long-running and wide-ranging investigation."