10 December 2019
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson agreed to pay a criminal penalty of over $520 million and about $540 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. The company improperly recorded tens of millions of dollars in improper payments around the world.
Ericsson Egypt pleaded guilty Friday to criminal charges in federal court in New York.
The SEC’s complaint stated that from 2011 to 2017, Ericsson subsidiaries obtained business valued at about $427 million by using third parties to bribe officials in Saudi Arabia, China, and Djibouti.
In Djibouti between 2010 and 2014, an Ericsson unit paid $2.1 million in bribes. It used a sham contract with a consulting company to hide the corrupt payments. The subsidiary won a contract worth $22.5 million from a state-owned firm to modernize its mobile networks system.
Between 2013 and 2016, about $31.5 million went to intermediaries under sham contracts for services that were never performed, the DOJ said.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson agreed to pay a criminal penalty of over $520 million and about $540 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. The company improperly recorded tens of millions of dollars in improper payments around the world.
Ericsson Egypt pleaded guilty Friday to criminal charges in federal court in New York.
The SEC’s complaint stated that from 2011 to 2017, Ericsson subsidiaries obtained business valued at about $427 million by using third parties to bribe officials in Saudi Arabia, China, and Djibouti.
In Djibouti between 2010 and 2014, an Ericsson unit paid $2.1 million in bribes. It used a sham contract with a consulting company to hide the corrupt payments. The subsidiary won a contract worth $22.5 million from a state-owned firm to modernize its mobile networks system.
Between 2013 and 2016, about $31.5 million went to intermediaries under sham contracts for services that were never performed, the DOJ said.
Subsidiaries in Vietnam created off-the-books slush funds amounting to $4.8 million. Similarly slush funds amounting to $45 million were created in Indonesia.
The FCPA Blog reported.
