BAE Systems fined $400 million in U.S., 30 million pounds in U.K. for corruption, bribery

BAE Systems has reportedly agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) a $400 million fine and has pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to make false payments to the U.S. government in connection with regulatory filings. In another case, the company has reached an agreement with the U.K. Serious Fraud Office to pay a fine of 30 million pounds and plead guilty to one charge of breach of duty to keep accounting records in relation to payments made to a former marketing adviser in Tanzania. BAE Systems has reached settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice over an investigation into its activities in Saudi Arabia and Britain's Serious Fraud Office over a corruption inquiry into the sale of a radar to Tanzania, A DOJ press release said. The DoJ has been conducting inquiries since mid-2007 into alleged corruption by BAE related to the sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. The Serious Fraud Office has been investigating charges of alleged corruption against BAE in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Czech Republic and Romania as well as Tanzania. In a Feb. 5 statement, the company said it very much regrets and accepts full responsibility for these past shortcomings. BAE chairman Dick Oliver was quoted as saying, "These settlements enable the company to deal finally with significant legacy issues. In the years since the conduct referred to in these settlements occurred, the company has systematically enhanced its compliance policies and processes with a view to ensuring that the company is as widely recognized for responsible conduct as it is for high quality products and advanced technologies."