Bombardier cooperating with SFO corruption investigation

(Compliance Week, Boston, 6 November 2020) The U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday confirmed it is investigating plane maker Bombardier over suspected bribery and corruption in relation to contracts and orders from Indonesian airline carrier Garuda Indonesia. According to the allegations, Garuda's former CEO received US$3.2 million in bribery payments from consultants in exchange for securing maintenance and procurement contracts for Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Bombardier, and Avions de Transport Regional. The bribery payments were said to have originated from the commissions received by the consultant from each of these airline manufacturers. The U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday confirmed it is investigating plane maker Bombardier over suspected bribery and corruption in relation to contracts and orders from Indonesian airline carrier Garuda Indonesia. As Compliance Week previously reported, a March 2017 report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project — a consortium of nonprofit investigative centers and media outlets around the globe — alleged Bombardier Transportation paid “millions of dollars in bribes to unidentified Azerbaijani officials through a shadowy company registered in the United Kingdom. Canada's Export Development Corporation (EDC) first initiated a review of Bombardier in August 2019, following leaked preliminary findings from a World Bank investigation into a 2013 contract Bombardier Transportation had with Azerbaijan Railways. In February 2020, (EDC, Canada’s export credit agency wholly owned by the Government of Canada, concluded in an independent review of Bombardier’s compliance policies and procedures that the company was progressing.

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