Four previous Ericsson employees were accused of paying off authorities in Djibouti during a legal case in Sweden, as the drop out from the vendor’s historical corruption scandal continued.
During 2011 and 2012 in Djibouti, the Swedish police claimed that the accused were suspected for paying more than $2 million to public authorities through a third party trying to win contracts.
The police marked the pay-offs as being made to "authorities of a tyrant system that is consistently blamed for common liberties infringement".
“As a company, Ericsson has previously been prosecuted in the US for, among other things, the crime that individuals have now been prosecuted (for) in Sweden,” the police added.
“While the American prosecution focused on the company, the Swedish investigation has focused on investigating whether and, if so which…persons have criminal liability for what happened.”
Not long ago, Ericsson had agreed to settle a damages claim of 80 million euros to Nokia, following investigations into Ericsson’s violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The vendor was charged of violating internal controls of the FCPA in five countries, including Djibouti.
Independent investigations by Sweden and Ericsson followed the close of the US case.
Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said that the company revealed, “Several deficiencies, including a failure to react to red flags and inadequate internal controls, following its initial assessment in 2019”.
