BAE Systems was on Friday night preparing to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay one of the biggest ever fines over alleged corporate bribery after striking a deal to end transatlantic corruption probes that have entangled it for years. The deal will cost the group almost $450m (£288m) - the bulk of it in the US - but should prevent it from being barred from government defence contracts in the US and elsewhere that underpin its business. The deal - in Britain's biggest and most politically contentious corporate corruption case- immediately sparked debate over whether BAE had got off lightly after eight years of investigation in London and Washington. Under the settlement, the first co-ordinated transatlantic deal in a corporate bribery case, BAE has agreed to pay a $400m fine in the US and plead guilty to one charge of conspiring to make false statements to the government in connection with regulatory filings and undertakings. In Britain, the company is set to pay £30m and plead guilty to a minor accounting offence. Unlike the US, Britain has ruled out prosecuting any individuals.
BAE Systems was on Friday night preparing to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay one of the biggest ever fines over alleged corporate bribery after striking a deal to end transatlantic corruption probes that have entangled it for years.
The deal will cost the group almost $450m (£288m) - the bulk of it in the US - but should prevent it from being barred from government defence contracts in the US and elsewhere that underpin its business.
The deal - in Britain's biggest and most politically contentious corporate corruption case- immediately sparked debate over whether BAE had got off lightly after eight years of investigation in London and Washington.
Under the settlement, the first co-ordinated transatlantic deal in a corporate bribery case, BAE has agreed to pay a $400m fine in the US and plead guilty to one charge of conspiring to make false statements to the government in connection with regulatory filings and undertakings.
In Britain, the company is set to pay £30m and plead guilty to a minor accounting offence. Unlike the US, Britain has ruled out prosecuting any individuals.
A public trial would have been far more expensive than a fine, and might - allegedly - have implicated senior figures on both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe, and elsewhere.
So it's basically - allegedly - hush money.
Also interesting is the fact that a huge part of the fine is being paid to the US, which - as everyone knows - has a defence sector that is the envy of the world when it comes to business ethics.
