A few items of note on the “fallout” front from last week’s landmark $500 million settlement between British defense company BAE, the Justice Department, and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, over corruption charges that have plagued the company for several years.
As The Financial Times and The Guardian point out, both the financial disparity of the settlement ($400 million to the DOJ, $100 million to the United Kingdom’s SFO), as well as the fact that only the U.S. Justice Department pursued the company for its most serious offense, the al-Yamamah arms deal in Saudi Arabia, suggest that as far as enforcement of corruption goes, the DOJ is the much stronger entity.
“The Serious Fraud Office’s settlement with BAE a travesty of justice,” writes The Guardian. “As recently as Friday morning, the SFO team was still taking formal witness statements in relation to a multibillion-pound deal in which BAE sold jets to South Africa that its air force didn’t want and are hardly used. Over £100m in bribes was allegedly paid to agents, senior politicians, officials and political parties. The SFO felt it had a strong case…
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