Whistleblower in Ericsson bribery case receives record $279M award from US



05/29/2023 3:34 AM


According to the WSJ, US authorities have given a record $279 million prize to whistleblower from Ericsson, who revealed that the Swedish business obtained contracts in poor nations through bribery.



Marco Verch
A record $279 million award from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Cash for Claims program was given to a whistleblower in the case of Swedish telecoms equipment firm Ericsson corrupting authorities in developing countries. The award is associated with a $1.1 billion settlement that Ericsson reached with US authorities in 2019 in response to accusations that it had broken the country's rules against foreign corruption, sources claimed.

The SEC did not provide any justification for the award and did not identify the recipient, and referred to current whistleblower protection laws.

In 2019, Sweden's Ericsson was charged with breaking the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. From 2000 to 2016, crimes were committed in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Kuwait, and Indonesia, according to US authorities. The SEC claims that the Swedish company's subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia, China, and Djibouti were able to bribe their way into contracts totaling $427 million.

source: wsj.com


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