Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, March 3 (Xinhua)-- Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has agreed to pay a fine of $206 million (1.425 billion yuan) and pleaded guilty to violating the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign corrupt practices Act, US prosecutors announced late Thursday.

Ericsson originally reached a settlement with the United States in 2019, signed a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and paid a fine of $520.6 million (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 3.597 billion yuan). At the time, federal prosecutors in New York said Ericsson had participated in a "years-long corruption campaign" involving bribing government officials and falsifying books and records in Djibouti, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait. In addition, the company paid a fine of about $540 million (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 3.731 billion yuan) to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the DoJ said Ericsson violated the agreement by failing to truthfully disclose "all factual information and evidence" relating to the company's bribery plans in Djibouti and elsewhere. The company has yet to disclose potential evidence of a similar plan in Iraq.

Us prosecutors said Ericsson violated the deferred prosecution agreement, using outside advisers to bribe government officials in all countries, managing off-book "bribery funds" and using "false contracts" and "false invoices" to conceal the nature of the funds. The DoJ said Ericsson employees in China paid "tens of millions of dollars" to agents and consultants, "at least some of which are used to provide valuable things to foreign officials, including leisure travel and entertainment". In Djibouti, an employee of Ericsson paid more than $2 million in bribes to senior government officials of the country's administration and Djibouti's state-owned telecommunications company.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kenneth Pollitt said in a press release: "when the Justice Department offered Ericsson the opportunity to sign the DPA agreement to resolve serious violations of the FCPA investigation, the company agreed to abide by all the terms of the agreement. However, Ericsson failed to honour this commitment, repeatedly refused to cooperate fully and failed to disclose evidence and allegations of misconduct in violation of the agreement. "

Ericsson CEO Bao Yikang (B ö rje Ekholm) said in a press release that "the violation has now been resolved" as the company was fined the latest and reached a plea agreement. This allows us to focus on implementing our strategy while driving continuous cultural change across the company, putting integrity at the centre of what we do, "Mr Bao said." this resolution is a clear reminder that historical misconduct led to the birth of DPA. "

The International Union of Investigative journalists (ICIJ) reported in 2022 that Ericsson allegedly "sought" approval from the terrorist group ISIS to continue its work in Mosul, Iraq. Mosul was then controlled by ISIS. The press release issued by US federal prosecutors did not directly refer to the ICIJ report on Ericsson's alleged transactions with ISIS, but noted that Ericsson "failed to promptly report and disclose evidence and allegations related to its business activities in Iraq, which may have violated the Foreign corrupt practices Act".

Ericsson said in a press release that its internal investigation "did not conclude that Ericsson paid or was responsible for any payment to any terrorist organization". The company said the subsequent investigation, which began in 2022, did not change that assessment.

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