Ericsson will pay a yard to settle bribery charges
The judge could not be Swede into letting them off
by Chris MerrimanCOMPANY YOU'D FORGOTTEN STILL EXISTED Ericsson has been ordered to pay fines equivalent to $1bn (£760m) after US courts found it had engaged in bribery offences in a "years-long" campaign.
The US Department of Justice found that the company had been using bungs in five countries - Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait - to "solidify its grip on telecommunications business". It's thought that the offences occurred between 2000 and 2016 - stretching back to the days when it was still manufacturing handsets with the best of them.
The payout marks a record for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) with a $520m penalty to the Justice Department and a further $540m going to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ericsson is understood to have put aside over a billion in case of damages in its accounting for the year ahead.
US Attorney Geoffrey S Berman of the Southern District of New York said: "Through slush funds, bribes, gifts, and graft, Ericsson conducted telecom business with the guiding principle that 'money talks'.
He added that the fine "should communicate clearly to all corporate actors that doing business this way will not be tolerated".
"Ericsson's corrupt conduct involved high-level executives and spanned 17 years and at least five countries, all in a misguided effort to increase profits," said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
Ericsson hasn't commented so far beyond a statement prior to the verdict, which said that it would cough up the readies to "resolve the government's investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of the Company's scheme to make and improperly record tens of millions of dollars in improper payments around the world".
As part of the settlement, Ericsson has also agreed to continue to assist with the investigation and any further charges against named individuals, improve its compliance programme and maintain an independent compliance monitor for three years.
The words "naughty step" spring to mind. μ
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