The US Department of Justice announced that Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson has pleaded guilty to a corruption case and will pay a fine of $206 million (72 billion forints) as part of the agreement.
According to the US Department of Justice, Ericsson violated a US law that prohibits companies from offering money or anything of value to foreigners in order to obtain business opportunities.
The Swedish telecom company has been accused of, among other things, bribery and accounting fraud in many countries around the world.
Government officials have been bribed in many countries
According to court documents, from 2000 to 2016, Ericsson forged accounting data and bribed government officials in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait through consultants and subcontractors.
Under the plea bargain, which has yet to be approved by the court, Ericsson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit corruption and violating the accounting information provisions of the law.
In addition to all this, Ericsson should have a probationary period until June 2024 and be subject to independent monitoring for another year.
And the company recently announced that it plans to cut 1,400 employees in Sweden, and its profits in the last quarter fell by 39 percent, and profits for the previous year decreased by 17 percent.
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