BAE unaware of ‘planned US probe’

BBC

A BAE Systems spokesman has told the BBC it is “not aware of any proposed criminal inquiry” in the US.

The UK defence group’s comments came after the Guardian newspaper said the US Department of Justice was preparing to open a corruption investigation.

The paper said the inquiry would focus on the allegations that BAE ran a multi-million pound slush fund to help it win a giant order from Saudi Arabia.

BAE has always insisted that it acted lawfully at all times.

Growing US operations

The report in the Guardian said senior Washington sources were “99% certain” that a criminal inquiry would be opened into BAE under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

An inquiry could hit BAE’s operations in the US, where it has achieved an increasing amount of business in recent years.

The allegations of illegal payments date back to the £43bn Al Yamamah deal of the 1980s, which supplied Tornado jets and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

It was reported earlier this week that BAE had now appointed Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, to head an independent review of business practices at the company.

A probe by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office into the Al Yamamah deal was stopped in December 2006 on grounds of national security.

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