On April 28, 2021, an Airbus subsidiary was ordered to pay more than £30 million ($41 million) after pleading guilty to one count of corruption for bribing senior Saudi Arabian officials between 2008 and 2010 in relation to a defense contract between the UK and Saudi Arabia for communications and electronic warfare equipment. Last year, Airbus entered into one of the largest corporate resolutions in history with the UK Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”), the French Parquet National Financier (“PNF”), and the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”), settling allegations of bribery and corruption for a total payment of €3.598 billion plus interest and costs.
See Airbus Agrees Record-Breaking €3.6 Billion Settlement To Avoid Prosecution. This year’s resolution, while far smaller, is yet another reminder that, even with the increasing global coordination among enforcement agencies, individual agencies will often resist resolving all open issues at a given moment.
In the case announced last week, the subsidiary, GPT Special Project Management Ltd. (“GPT”), admitted to paying more than £10 million in bribes to obtain business from the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 2008 to 2010. According to prosecutors, GPT provided the Saudi Arabian National Guard with services through subcontractors, earning £9.9 million in profits, after it became the UK Ministry of Defense’s prime contractor in 2010. The bribes were allegedly paid to members of the Saudi royal family, military commanders, and government officials.
The court ordered GPT to disgorge £20 million in profits and pay a £7.5 million fine in addition to covering £2.2 million of the costs of the SFO’s investigation. The court noted that one of the mitigating factors it considered was Airbus’s cooperation in the SFO’s investigation. The SFO reportedly began investigating GPT in 2012 following a whistleblower report of potential wrongdoing. It nevertheless took five more years to reach resolution, and the terms were apparently not completed at the time Airbus itself entered into its global resolution last year.
