BAE slapped with $79m US fine
Defence contractor BAE Systems has agreed to pay additional fines of up to $79m (£48m) for flouting US regulations governing the export of sensitive military hardware.
BAE, Europe’s biggest defence company and a major supplier to the US military, said on Tuesday that the latest penalties formed part of a civil settlement with the US Department of State.
“The company looks forward to working with the State Department to ensure that it continues to make progress towards achieving its goal as being as widely recognised for responsible conduct as it is for high quality products and advanced technologies,” BAE Chairman Dick Oliver said in a statement.
Early last year BAE revealed it would pay around $450m in fines in the United States and Britain following long-running corruption investigations on both sides of the Atlantic into defence deals in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
BAE said on Tuesday that the latest fine would be payable over three years and that it would be able to reduce it by up to $10m to offset the cost of improved export control compliance measures.