PRESS REPORTS OF $400 MILLION FINE ON BAE SYSTEMS

BBC News: BAE Systems handed £286m criminal fines in UK and US: 5 Feb 2010

EXTRACTS:

BAE Systems will admit two criminal charges and pay fines of £286m to settle US and UK probes into the firm. It will hand over more than £250m to the US, which accused BAE of "wilfully misleading" it over payments made as the firm tried to win contracts. The defence group will pay about £30m in the UK - a record criminal corporate fine - for separate wrongdoings.

The DoJ also details services such as holidays provided to an unnamed Saudi public official and cash transfers to a Swiss bank account that it says were linked to the £40bn Al-Yamamah contract to supply military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

Daily Telegraph: Bribery, corruption and BAE Systems: 5 February 2010

With today’s settlement with the Serious Fraud Office in Britain and the Department of Justice in the US, BAE Systems, the defence giant, finally wipes the slate clean of bribery and corruption allegations which have dogged the company for nearly two decades.

The SFO essentially dropped its bribery and corruption case against BAE after the Government intervened through the attorney general. It will be recalled that so horrified was the Saudi royal family with the idea that the SFO should go probing around in their personal Swiss bank accounts, that they threatened to cut off all intelligence to Britain in connection with the terror threat. The then prime minister, Tony Blair, ordered that it was in the public interest that the investigation should cease.

FT: BAE to pay $450m to end bribery case: 5 Feb 2010

EXTRACT: While the UK settlement involves admissions of wrong-doing only in relation to the company’s sale of a radar system to Tanzania, the broader US deal covers central Europe as well as the company’s huge Saudi Arabian arms sales.

The Seattle Times: Military contractor BAE fined $400M for fraud: 1 March 2010

BAE Systems, Europe's biggest military contractor, was ordered to pay a $400 million fine after admitting it conspired to defraud the U.S. government, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The company also provided "substantial benefits" to a Saudi Arabian official "who was in a position of influence regarding sales of fighter jets, other defense materials and related support services," the U.S. said.