Sweden Drops Probe Into Suspected Ericsson Bribery Despite Company’s Own Admission

While the scandal-ridden telecom giant itself previously admitted to engaging in bribery in several countries as part of a $1 billion corruption settlement with the US Justice Department, Swedish prosecutors found no indication that the payments were made in bad faith.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority has closed an investigation into suspected overseas bribery payments by employees at telecom giant Ericsson, because there was no evidence a crime had been committed.

The Swedish company has previously admitted to engaging in bribery in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait in the period between 2000 and 2016 in a $1 billion corruption settlement with the US Justice Department.

Nevertheless, Prosecutor Leif Görts announced that the Kuwait, Iraq and China investigations are now closed.

In order to be able to prosecute in a bribery crime, it is necessary to be able to identify the recipient of the money, Görts explained to Swedish media. “So that you see that a bribee who receives the money because of his employment or his mission. It is unknown to us who these people are and it is more unknown in what capacity they have received money,” he added.

“While payments amounting to several hundred million Swedish kronor, corresponding to tens of millions of dollars, were made over a period leading up to 2016, it was not clear that these were made in bad faith,” the Prosecution Authority further said in a statement.

Of the four major corruption investigations against Ericsson, the prosecutor Leif Görts has now closed three. The remaining one concerns suspicions of bribery in Djubouti and is now being handled in the Court of Appeal.

Ericsson has a long history of bribery scandals. In 2019, when the company was forced to pay a record $1 billion fine in a corruption settlement with the US Justice Department, Ericsson was put under surveillance and committed to reporting the slightest suspicion of more bribes in the company's operations.

In February 2022, national Swedish broadcaster SVT together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) disclosed an internal Ericsson investigation into suspected bribes to Daesh* in Iraq, kept secret both from the public and the company’s shareholders.

Shortly after the disclosure, the US Justice Department announced that Ericsson, by withholding information about Iraq, had violated the settlement from 2019 reached following previous accusations of corruption and bribery. The company has since taken a plunge on the stock exchange and risks further massive fines.

Founded in 1876 and headquartered in Stockholm, telecom giant Ericsson builds infrastructure and offers software and services in information and communications technology. It is seen as one of the world's leaders in 5G, employing some 100,000 people and operating in over 180 countries across the globe.

*Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and other states.