With the payment of a fine of more than 200 million dollars to the American justice, the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson wants to put behind him a case of corruption linked to bribes possibly paid to the Islamic State organization ( IS) in Iraq.

This plea-guilty arrangement, which results in a fine of 206.7 million dollars (195 million euros), puts an end to a transactional agreement – ??deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA – concluded in December 2019 with the United States , says Ericsson. At the time, the group had already paid a billion dollars to the American courts to end corruption prosecutions in five other countries (Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait).

“Historical Misconduct”

The agreement that has just been concluded relates to the fact that Ericsson had not provided American justice, whose universal jurisdiction in many areas allows it to prosecute a number of foreign groups, the results of an investigation report relating to alleged bribes in Iraq. The affair broke out in February 2022 ahead of the publication of an extensive press investigation coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The internal investigation mentioned in particular payments between 2011 and 2019 for road transport in areas controlled by IS, payments suspected of having ended up in the pockets of the jihadist group. This file is also the subject of an investigation in Sweden.

The judicial resolution in the United States “is a stark reminder of the historical misconduct that led to the DPA. We have learned from this and embarked on an important journey to transform our culture,” said group boss Börje Ekholm, quoted in the Ericsson statement. The group announced on Tuesday the departure of its head of ethics and legal compliance, Laurie Waddy, without citing the Iraqi file.

Mr. Ekholm previously admitted that some of his employees may indeed have paid bribes. Ericsson had already acknowledged “unacceptable behavior” and claimed to have doubled down on the risk of corruption.