With the payment of a fine of more than 200 million dollars to the American justice, the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson wants to put behind him a case of corruption linked to bribes possibly paid to the Islamic State organization ( IS) in Iraq.
This plea-guilty arrangement, which results in a fine of 206.7 million dollars (195 million euros), puts an end to a settlement agreement – deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA – concluded in December 2019 with the United States, specifies Ericsson. At the time, the group had already paid a billion dollars to American justice to end corruption proceedings in five other countries (Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait).
“Historical misconduct”
The agreement which has just been concluded, announced by the group in a press release published during the night of Thursday March 2 to Friday March 3, relates to the fact that Ericsson had not provided American justice with the results of an internal investigation into alleged bribery in Iraq. The affair broke out in February 2022 ahead of the publication of a vast press investigation coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The internal investigation mentioned in particular payments between 2011 and 2019 for road transport in areas controlled by IS, payments suspected of having ended up in the pockets of the jihadist group. This file is also the subject of an investigation in Sweden.
Judicial resolution in the United States “is a stark reminder of the historical misconduct that led to the DPA. We have learned from this and embarked on an important journey to transform our culture”, assured the boss of the group, Börje Ekholm, quoted in the press release from Ericsson. The group announced Tuesday the departure of its head of ethics and legal compliance, Laurie Waddy, without citing the Iraqi file.
Mr. Ekholm had previously admitted that some of his employees may indeed have paid bribes. Ericsson had already recognized “unacceptable behavior” and guaranteed to have worked hard against the risk of corruption.