FCPA Scorecard Blog

Telia to Pay $965 Million to DOJ and SEC to Settle Bribery Claims

On September 21, the Swedish telecom Telia Company AB agreed to pay $965 million as a result of criminal and civil actions brought by the DOJ and SEC charging the company with paying bribes to an Uzbek government official from 2007 to 2010. Telia entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ that required the company to pay a $548.6 million criminal penalty for violating the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, $274 million of which will be paid to the Swedish Prosecution Authority and credited by the DOJ. $40 million of the total criminal penalty consisted of forfeiture by Telia on behalf of its indirect subsidiary Coscom. According to the criminal information, around 2007, Telia began operating a mobile telecommunications business in Uzbekistan through Coscom, and the companies allegedly then conspired to make approximately $331 million in bribes to an Uzbek government official to expand their share of the telecommunications market. 

On the same day, the SEC issued a cease-and-desist order finding that Telia violated the anti-bribery and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA and ordering the company to disgorge $457 million in illicit profits (but also agreeing to credit up to half that amount if disgorged to the Swedish Prosecution Authority). The SEC found that over the relevant time period, “Telia paid bribes to a government official in Uzbekistan in order to obtain and retain business that generated more than $2.5 billion in revenues.” It found that Telia paid the Uzbek official $330 million in bribes “funneled through payments for sham lobbying and consulting services to a front company controlled by the official.” The SEC agreed that the $40 million forfeiture to the DOJ would also offset.

DOJ SEC Bribery FCPA Telia Uzbek Swedish Prosecution Authority