PARIS (Reuters) – The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) said on Tuesday it had entered into discussions with Airbus which could lead to the conclusion of a judicial agreement in the public interest (CJIP), a mechanism under which a company agrees to pay a fine in exchange for the abandonment of legal proceedings.
According to the Mediapart news site, the European aircraft manufacturer is under investigation on suspicion of paying bribes during the sale of 21 planes to Libya in 2007, which is part of the part of a wider investigation into relations with the regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Mediapart reports that Airbus is close to a new agreement with the PNF, having already concluded in 2020 a CJIP for an amount of 2.083 billion euros in France, a sum to which were added fines of more than 1, 5 billion euros in Great Britain and the United States.
“I confirm that discussions have been initiated with Airbus with a view to the possible conclusion of a CJIP for facts which are an extension of those which gave rise to the CJIP concluded in January 2020, but which could not then be processed simultaneously,” a PNF spokesman told Reuters.
The prosecution declined to provide further details, citing discussions at the “preliminary” stage.
Airbus declined to comment.
(Report by Juliette Jabkhiro and Tim Hepher, written by Tim Hepher, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
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