Ericsson Cleared in Sweden on China Bribery Case

Swedish prosecution authority dropped an investigation into Ericsson regarding alleged bribery payments made in China by the vendor’s employees. The body found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Sweden launched an investigation into Ericsson in December 2019, shortly after the company agreed to pay a total of $1.1 billion to settle corruption cases brought by the US Department of Justice and the Security and Exchange Commission. Ericsson had admitted to US authorities that it had paid bribes, falsified records, and other related activities between 2000 and 2016 in five countries: Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait. Sweden then launched a probe to look into whether any of the company’s staff could be hit with bribery charges concerning activity in Djibouti, Kuwait, Iraq, and China.

However, in a statement, prosecutor Leif Gorts explained it had closed the China investigation, in addition to those in Iraq and Kuwait. In Djibouti, company executives have been acquitted of bribery charges by a Swedish court, but this decision has been appealed by prosecutors. In the China probe, the prosecution authority stated while payments amounting to several hundred million crowns corresponding to tens of millions of dollars had been made over a period leading to 2016, it was not clear that these were made in bad faith.