When their own parent company agrees to "settle" a bribery charge.. Come on Keithy.. you gotta say something about this one, right? Chris? Rachel? Anyone?.
General Electric has agreed to pay $23.5m to settle allegations from US regulators that its subsidiaries bribed Iraqi officials to win contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Programme between 2000 and 2003.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is the second in as many years for GE. Last year, the company agreed to pay $50m to resolve charges of accounting fraud relating to hedging activities in 2002 and 2003.
In both cases GE said it had co-operated with investigators and, despite the settlements, it neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
According to the SEC, GE violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of a $3.6m “kickback scheme”. Executives at two subsidiaries and two groups later bought by GE allowed agents to give Iraqi health ministry officials payments to win contracts for medical and water purification equipment, the SEC claimed.
Yeah, we'll be hearing about this one on Countdown ANY day...
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