Leaked cable shows "$$$ PAYMENTS WERE MADE" -evidence/details of BAE Saudi arms deal

[kpete]

By Samuel Rubenfeld

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office briefed a private meeting with the OECD Working Group on Bribery about why it shut down its investigation of BAE Systems PLC despite having evidence of the company bribing Saudi officials, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2007/03/07PARIS829.html

The Serious Fraud Office's then-deputy director Helen Garlick told the meeting that other "substantial" payments were made to an unnamed senior Saudi official and to overseas agents employed by the Saudi government, according to the cable, dated March 2007.

The SFO also "discovered false representations by BAE to conceal the corrupt dealings, which would constitute conspiracy to defraud under U.K. law," the cable said.

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MORE: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hXavdu7-9o4t58QPHUvaQe7qA7QQ?docId=e0a203b41b3841dbb01f270e3cc09882


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WikiLeaks Reveals How the British Lied to OECD about BAE Bribery
By: emptywheel Monday March 14, 2011 12:30 pm

The U.S. delegation took note of the experience and professionalism of U.K. delegation members. The US del inquired into what appeared to be inconsistent accounts relating to differences in views of the SFO Director and Attorney General regarding the merits of the case, reports alleging British intelligence agencies had not joined the government’s assessment that the case raised national and international security interests, and whether the SFO could provide WGB members with assurances that BAE would not continue to make corrupt payments to senior Saudi officials.


The cable is perhaps most interesting because it gives us a glimpse of what the British publicly told the international community about its investigation, the targets, and the reasons for dropping the investigation.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/03/14/wikileaks-reveals-how-the-british-lied-to-allies-about-bae-bribery/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Didn't this all come out in the trial last year ?

:shrug:

5 February 2010 BAE pays fines of £285m over arms deal corruption claims.

The British arms firm BAE Systems has accepted guilt and agreed to pay penalties in the US and the UK totalling several hundred million pounds to settle all the long-running corruption allegations against it.

Under the deal, announced simultaneously in London and Washington, BAE will pay $400m (£255m) in the US and £30m in the UK.

In the US, the company will plead guilty to offences of false accounting to settle bribery allegations made over the enormous al-Yamamah arms deals with Saudi Arabia stretching back more than 20 years, as well as corruption allegations over arms deals in central Europe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/05/bae-admits-bribery-saudi-yamamah

[Luminous Animal]

2. No, it didn't all come out. The investigation was halted and the major Saudi players

protected when the deal was struck.

Sometimes it helps to click on the link and read the information contained therein.

[dipsydoodle]

3. What's to read,

despite the fact I did so ,we've had entire documentaries on the subject here in the UK. There is nothing I can see in the cables referred to which wasn't already common knowledge here.