The British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has revealed that a British defence firm deposited millions of pounds into a bank account in Switzerland belonging to one of the members of the Saudi royal family.
The deposit was made to ensure that British Ministry of Defence would grant a two-billion pounds contract to GPT, a British wing of EADS, the biggest aerospace defence company in Europe.
Under the contract, GPT was responsible for modernizing communications and cyberwarfare equipment of the Saudi royal palaces and National Guard, which helped the Bahraini regime to suppress the protesters in May.
In 2008, a whistleblower told senior staff at EADS about the bribery scandal saying the deposits “may be illegal… I am flagging up to you a possible illegal transaction and seeking your guidance.”
Furthermore, another whistleblower briefed SFO on the scandal telling them that 11.5 million pounds have been deposited into a Swiss bank account.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who was informed about the scandal by SFO, is to decide whether to open an investigation into the alleged bribes made by GPT.
Nevertheless, he may decide to refrain from launching an inquiry for the sake of the British firm’s interests.
In a similar case in 2007, the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, decided to drop corruption charges against the arms company BAE after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair exerted pressure on him.
BAE had also bribed the then head of Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser, in order to secure a 40 billion pounds contract to sell jets to the Saudis.
www.presstv.ir, OCTOBER 10 2011
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