Friday 5 February 2010

And the award for brazen cheek goes to…

BAe, the weapons manufacturer.

They've just agreed to hand over £300 million in fines and legally accepted guilt in several corruption cases worth £43 billion to avoid going to court and have the details made public.

Despite the worst corruption occurring in British jurisdiction, the fine here is only £30m, because the UK government encouraged it all (especially Jonathan Aitken, the government minister who was essentially BAe's salesman to the Saudis) and because the Serious Fraud Office here is useless (and Tony Blair cancelled one investigation 'for reasons of national security'). The Americans take this stuff much more seriously. Especially when it's foreign companies…

What's their public statement? Boilerplate PR bullshit

BAE, which expressed regret and accepted "full responsibility for these past shortcomings", said the settlement would allow it to "deal finally with significant legacy issues" that had overshadowed the company.

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