OECD to investigate Tony Blair's dropped probe on BAE
Filed in archive regulators by leon on January 1, 2007

For the past two years, Britain's Serious Fraud Office had been investigating allegations that BAE had paid millions of dollars in bribes to clinch an $80 billion deal to supply and support the Saudi air force.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's working group on bribery will conduct an inquiry and the issue is on the agenda when it meets this month. OECD officials have told the BBC that there are concerns about political interference. Activists have also launched legal action against the Blair Government.
The Saudis had threatened to cancel a contract for 72 Eurofighter Typhoons from BAE, a deal worth $12 billion. The Saudis had also threatened close their embassy, reducing it to a consulate and stop sharing intelligence on Al-Qaeda
activities with Britain and the United States, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.For its part, BAE says it operates to the highest ethical standards. The company says so on its corporate responsibility statement:
"We are committed to meeting the highest ethical standards in our dealings with others. The nature of our business means it is particularly important that we have strong values and an awareness of public concerns.
"We do not condone unethical or illegal conduct. The consequences of such conduct may be far reaching and severe not only for the Company and its employees, but also for other stakeholders. Unethical behaviour is wrong, could lead to loss of business, could seriously damage our reputation and leave the Company and its employees open to criminal sanction."
Well, that's what it says. But it seems that BAE might have form in dirty stuff.
More than three years ago, The Sunday Times ran a report alleging that it had paid a company to employ spies who had successfully infiltrated the London-based group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
It's also no stranger to allegations of dirty deals, as revealed in this piece from CorpWatch.
The organisation also seems to be very well connected politically.
As former British foreign secretary Robin Cook wrote in his autobiography Point of Departure:
"In my time I came to learn that the Chairman of British Aerospace appeared to have the key to the garden door to Number 10. Certainly I never once knew Number 10 to come up with any decision that would be incommoding to British Aerospace."
Permalink: OECD to investigate Tony Blair's dropped probe on BAE
Tags:
BAE
Tony
Blair
Saudi
Arabia
Saudi
Arabia
business
tony+blair
dropped+probe
blair+dropped
Trackback: http://www.creative-weblogging.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.pl/47697

Mr Wong
