Arms giant BAE will be in the dock at Southwark Crown Court on Monday morning, 20 December. Supporters from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) will hold a colourful pageant outside the courthouse to illustrate the nature and extent of BAE’s wrongdoing.
The court hearing is expected to sign off the settlement agreed between the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and BAE on 5 February 2010 under which BAE would plead guilty to accounting errors
in Tanzania, while attempts by the SFO to prosecute BAE for alleged corruption would be dropped in the four countrties under investigation: Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania.
Before the court hearing CAAT will display a giant puppet representing BAE Chairman Dick Olver (who is unlikly to be in court) handing out peanuts to illustrate the paucity of the punishment.
Kaye Stearman of Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
Some people will see the BAE guilty plea and fine as a punishment, but that’s far from the truth. BAE is admitting only to accounting errors, not to corruption charges. Even if BAE is ordered to pay the full £30 million fine, it is still peanuts in their reckoning and far less than the real costs paid by the people of Tanzania, one of the world’s poorest countries.
For further information contact CAAT’s Media Co-ordinator at media(at)caat·org·uk or on 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673232. Photos will be available shortly after the event.
Notes
- Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) works for the reduction and ultimate abolition of the international arms trade together with progressive demilitarisation within arms producing countries. The CAAT protest will take place from 9.30am to 10.30am.
- Over the years the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has investigated allegations of corrupt payments made in Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Tanzania, totalling over £1 billion. The investigation regarding Saudi Arabia was dropped after the intervention of then Prime Minister Tony Blair in December 2006.
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On 23 November 2010, BAE pleaded guilty to a single criminal offence charge at Westminister Magistrates Court, namely that:
Between 01/01/1999 and 31/12/2005 at …, being an officer of British Aerospace Defence Systems Limited, knowingly and wilfully authorised default to be made by the company in that it failed to keep accounting records which were sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions. Contrary to section 221 (5) and (6) of and Schedule 24 to the Companies Act 1985.
In effect, BAE is pleading guilty to
accounting errors
in relation to the sale of a military radar system to Tanzania in 1999, with BAE agreing to pay a sum of up to £30 million. -
As part of the plea bargain the SFO underook never to prosecute any individual in future if doing so involves alleging BAE Systems was guilty of corruption. CAAT and The Corner House attempted to challenge the plea bargain through a judicial review earlier this year.
In their letter of 19 November to SFO Director Richard Alderman the two groups state:
We remain deeply concerned about the terms of the plea bargain that the SFO has struck with BAE. …you disclosed that:
BAe requested an undertaking form [sic] the SFO that in any future proceedings (to which BAe was not a party) the prosecution would not allege that the company was guilty of corruption.
Despite repeated requests, the SFO has not released further details of this undertaking.
- Further information about BAE’s radar deal with Tanzania can be found here.
- More information on the SFO’s plea bargain with BAE and the legal challenge brought by CAAT and The Corner House can found here.
ENDS
