The Swedish telecom giant has confirmed that the company has pleaded guilty to the bribery charges that has been surrounding the firm for some time.
The company also confirmed that it will settle on the charges and thereby pay a hefty financial penalty. As a result, the news of Ericsson cutting 8,500 jobs around the world to reduce costs, seems to become a reality.
ScandAsia has earlier covered the prospect of job losses at Ericsson as a part of its efforts to cut costs by 9 billion Swedish crowns ($859 million) by the end of this year (here).
That was before the Swedish telecom firm once again agreed to pay a huge financial penalty after another set of US bribery charges.
The first time was in December 2019 when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed that Ericsson had agreed to pay approximately $1 billion to settle an inquiry into alleged corruption, including bribing public officials in a number of countries.
DOJ said at the time that Ericsson’s corrupt activities had extended from 2000 to 2016 in countries including Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait.
Now nearly nine months after the latest bribery charges were made against the Swedish company, Ericsson has announced that it has reached a resolution with the DOJ.
Ericsson has agreed to pay a $206 million penalty and to plead guilty to violating the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, officials confirmed last week.
Source: silicon.co.uk
