{"id":11647,"date":"2012-08-10T07:27:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T14:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11647"},"modified":"2012-08-10T07:27:59","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T14:27:59","slug":"saudi-officals-driving-around-in-luxury-cars-gifted-by-british-defence-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11647","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Officals driving around in luxury cars “gifted” by British Defence Firm"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK opens probe into EADS unit Saudi defence deal<\/strong>
\n9 August, 2012 – Reuters<\/p>\n

PARIS, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has formally launched a criminal probe into allegations that European defence group EADS bribed Saudi Arabian officials to win a communications contract.<\/p>\n

The allegations involve a $3.3 billion contract awarded to the EADS unit, GPT Special Project Management, to provide communications and intranet services for the Saudi National Guard, which protects the Kingdom’s royal family.<\/p>\n

Serious Fraud Office spokesman David Jones on Thursday confirmed a single-sentence statement on the UK prosecutors’ website that the investigation was underway but declined to elaborate. <\/p>\n

“The Director of the Serious Fraud Office has decided to open a criminal investigation into allegations concerning GPT and aspects of the conduct of their business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” a statement on the website said. <\/p>\n

An EADS spokesman in the UK did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment about the probe being launched. <\/p>\n

The investigation’s existence was first reported in May 2011, but the U.K’s Telegraph newspaper reported in October that it had been halted while the British government considered the political implications. <\/p>\n

The allegations surfaced in employment tribunal proceedings and were made by a former GPT employee who claimed Saudi officials were given luxury cars, jewellery and large sums of cash from London accounts through intermediaries, a source previously told Reuters. <\/p>\n

The SFO in 2006 halted an investigation into alleged bribes paid by BAE Systems in connection with a huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia amid fears that it would threaten UK national security. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK opens probe into EADS unit Saudi defence deal 9 August, 2012 – Reuters PARIS, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has formally launched a criminal probe into allegations that European defence group EADS bribed Saudi Arabian officials to win a communications contract. The allegations involve a $3.3 billion contract awarded to the more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[3344],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11648,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions\/11648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}