BAE faces new criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office
A new criminal investigation into allegations of corruption in arms deals is set to interview dozens of senior staff at BAE Systems.
The investigation will cover six separate arms deals which may have involved corrupt payments to middlemen.
As the Sunday Times reports:
Whitehall officials say dozens of senior BAE executives are to be interviewed in the next two months about alleged bribery involving more than £80m in secret commissions. The money is said to have been paid to middlemen involved in lucrative government arms contracts in South Africa, Tanzania, Romania and two other countries. The new SFO interviews come only a year after Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith, then attorney-general, controversially halted a separate corruption probe into BAE’s arms dealings with Saudi Arabia.
The government stopped that inquiry after the Saudis threatened to end intelligence cooperation in the war on terror, provoking a wave of international criticism.
Among those to be interviewed under caution in the new investigation will be Sir Dick Evans, BAE’s former chairman, who is still a consultant with the company. Mike Turner, the outgoing chief executive, is also expected to face questions. Both men adamantly deny any knowledge of wrongdoing.
Posted in BAE |
March 28th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Corruption is one of the major problem in the community. How can we solve this? And also the fraud crimes, this is very alarming. Thanks for giving interests with this problems.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Impeach Blair for Backing up Thatchers Greed and also his lies on Iraq/Iran. He is too close to the Neo cons to be allowed a Job in Europe