Last year, British arms maker was embroiled in a scandal over alleged bribes to the Saudi Arabian government. As I pointed out here, the uproar broke out after Britain's Serious Fraud Office dropped its investigation into the alleged bribery allegations.
Now, it looks like the Serious Fraud Office is trying to restore its reputation with reports that it has given BAE Systems four weeks to plead guilty to bribery allegations in South Africa, Tanzania and the Czech Republic. As the Daily Mail reports, it could see BAE entering a US-style deferred prosecution arrangement where the company would plead guilty before a judge, pay a fine and agree to mend its ways.
Given the massive fines handed out to Siemens for its bribery scandal, this could be enormously damaging for BAE, particularly if the sentence comes with a ban on it accepting any government contracts for a few years.
More to the point, this is new territory for the Serious Fraud Office going down the same direction as the Wall Street fraudbusters. It will be interesting to see what flows from that and whether other British companies will be hauled into line.
Interesting to note, judging the responses to the story on the Daily Mail website, just how unpopular the SFO’s lastest attempt at BAE-bashing seems to be.
I agree with the general view on there that the SFO should better use its time investigating our wrotten Parliamentarians!