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Ericsson fined again over bribery case

by on03 March 2023


Breached terms of a deal 

Networking giant Ericsson has been slapped with a fine by the US Department of Justice or breaching terms of the deferred prosecution deal it struck in 2019 in a corruption scandal.

In 2019 the son of Eric was found to have spent years using illegal business practices across its operations in China, Indonesia, Kuwait and Vietnam.

Ericsson admitted it all and paid more than a billion dollars to make the regulators go away under a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).

But it seems that Ericsson could not help itself and breached the DPA by failing to truthfully disclose all factual information and evidence related to a scheme in Djibouti and another in China scheme. There were some other potential violations of the FCPA's anti-bribery or accounting provisions," states a DoJ announcement.

The DoJ is cross that Ericsson "failed to promptly report and disclose evidence and allegations of conduct related to its business activities in Iraq that may constitute a violation of the FCPA."

This time the fine is $206 million. 

The son of Eric has responded to the news with a statement in which CEO Börje Ekholm declared "Taking this step today means that the matter of the breaches is now resolved."

Well other than the bits which are not. Iraq for example is still being investigated after it emerged that Ericsson might have paid bribes to arrange transport through areas controlled by Islamic State. Ericsson insists that its actions did not result in payments being made to terrorists.

 

Last modified on 03 March 2023
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