Airbus fined for bribery and corruption

Airbus for years practiced a “massive scheme to offer and pay bribes” involving top executives, according to disclosure in courts in Washington, Paris, and London as Europe’s aerospace champion agreed to pay €3.6bn in penalties to regulators in France, the UK, and the US.

Many of the bribes were paid through shell companies set up by executives working for an autonomous strategy and marketing unit once described by former CEO Tom Enders as “bullshit Castle” according to investigators in the three countries.

Airbus handed over 30m documents to authorities during the inquiry and will pay €2.1bn to France, €983m to the UK and €530m to the US.  Airbus’s admission of bribery and corruption offences stretching back to 2008, as well as breaches of disclosure on US arms export filings, brings to an end a nearly four-year investigation that marks a milestone for global anti-corruption co-operation.

The Airbus fine dwarfs the £671m sanction imposed on Rolls-Royce in 2017 by regulators.in the US, UK and Brazil for similar bribery and corruption offences which spanned dozens of countries including Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, China, and Colombia. Airbus was committed at a time when the European aircraft maker was gaining rapidly on its rival Boeing in the global passenger jet market.

The company appointed an independent panel to monitor compliance in 2017 and closed the SMO down.