Ericsson to Pay $206 Million in Plea on US Bribery Case

Ericsson agreed to pay a $206.7 million fine to the US Department of Justice (DoJ). It is part of a guilty plea involving historic bribery charges spanning several nations. The plea has, Ericsson stated, closed the door on a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).

The vendor explained the plea related to non-criminal breaches of a DPA it entered into in 2019, following US probes into its dealings in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait between 2010 and 2016. As part of the agreement, Ericsson agreed to pay a $1.1 billion penalty to the US government.

The company stated it wasn’t adjusting long-term financial targets following the latest development. “Taking this step today means that the matter of the breaches is now resolved. This allows us to focus on executing our strategy while driving continued cultural change across the company with integrity at the center of everything we do,“ Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm stated.

Ekholm added Ericsson’s leadership remains committed to a cultural transformation sparked by the US incident, highlighting ongoing work to implement stringent controls and improved governance, ethics, and compliance throughout the company. The DoJ aimed Ericsson’s efforts to meet its DPA obligations in 2021, arguing it failed to provide certain documents and factual information.