Emails show EADS warned about Saudi bribes years ago – FT

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) launched a criminal probe into allegations that a British-based unit of French defence group EADS bribed officials in kingdom to win the contract to provide communications and intranet services for the Saudi National Guard.

But financial controller at Riyadh-based GPT Special Project Management alerted his superiors to questions about payments as early as 2007, the Financial Times said citing emails seen by the newspaper.

Mike Paterson’s concerns centered on unaccounted payments totaling £11.5m (US$18m) to the Cayman Islands bank accounts of Simec International and Duranton International as well as the gift of four cars to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and military and a £278,000 payment for the rental of a villa owned by a Saudi National Guard general, the newspaper said.

“We have been informed by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office that it has begun a formal investigation in connection with aspects of the business of GPT Special Project Management Limited in Saudi Arabia which is a local subsidiary of the EADS Group conducting business exclusively for the UK MoD,” EADS said in an emailed statement.

We will continue to fully and constructively engage with the SFO but in view of the investigation will not be commenting further,” it added.

Details of the investigation were first reported last year but the UK’s The Telegraph newspaper in October said the probe had been suspended while the British government considered the political implications.

The allegations were first raised when former GPT employee, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Foxley, sued the company for unfair dismissal, claiming he was sacked for voicing concern about possible bribery at the firm.

The SFO in 2006 dropped a probe into allegations of bribes paid by rival British defence contractor BAE Systems in connection with the Gulf state after pressure by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and others.