Still, you were never one to let the facts get in the way of a good rant, were you, old chap?

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.
The US is seeking – but has so far been refused – more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.

British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK’s anti-bribery treaty obligations. This follows the suppression of Britain’s own Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was abandoned last year on the grounds that the inquiry might jeopardise national security. The move, following Tony Blair’s intervention, infuriated anti-corruption campaigners.

There was further uproar when the Guardian published the SFO’s findings – that £1bn had been paid to Bandar with UK government acquiescence, and another £1bn had been sent to Switzerland to agents acting for other Saudi royals. Bandar, who was also presented with a new Airbus jet by BAE, does not deny receiving the money, but says it was for authorised purposes.

According to US sources, businessman Peter Gardiner, who possesses boxes of invoices allegedly detailing payments made by BAE to members of the Saudi royal family, was flown by FBI agents to Washington on August 20 to give testimony there. It was arranged for him to travel via Paris to avoid British attention. Department of justice investigators are also seeking out the location of other potential witnesses from the UK. When Washington’s moves came to light, US sources say that protests were made by the British, and Gardiner was warned his testimony was “contrary to international protocols”. Gardiner refuses to comment.

Washington’s access to records obtained by the Swiss prosecutors in Berne, who are conducting their own money-laundering inquiry, is regarded as particularly significant. BAE set up a network of secret payments centred on Geneva, and the head of the SFO, Robert Wardle, has confirmed that it was his team’s request for details of Swiss accounts which led to the halting of the investigation.

One US source close to the department of justice said last week: “The investigators are confident they can get what they need from Switzerland. That’s where all the BAE arrangements were made.” Prince Bandar has hired a former head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, to represent his interests. “There have been no charges filed,” Freeh told the New York Times. “The prince denies any impropriety and violating any statutes in the UK or the US.”

Freeh, who stepped down in 2001, is working through a company called FGI, based in Wilmington, Delaware. Its partners include Stanley Sporkin, former head of enforcement at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and a retired British high court judge, Sir Stephen Mitchell. They describe themselves as a “group of judges and senior FBI officials giving … confidential advice to a select group … to aid a client facing challenges in the corporate or government world”.

In September this year Britain and Saudi Arabia announced a deal for the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft at a cost of £4.4bn.

Last week, the British solicitor general, Vera Baird, pulled out of a meeting in Rome organised by the OECD and hosted by the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, to celebrate 10 years of the international anti-bribery treaty which Britain is now accused of flouting. Alice Fisher, the US administration official in charge of the Saudi inquiries under the US foreign corrupt practices act, told delegates from 37 countries that cooperation over mutual legal assistance was vital. The assistant attorney general praised France, Germany and Italy for cooperating, but failed to mention Britain.

Britain faces a judicial review hearing in the high court in the new year brought by campaigners from the Cornerhouse anti-corruption group and the Campaign against the Arms Trade. This is due to be followed by a renewed OECD inspection in March because of concerns that Britain has breached its treaty commitments, and failed to update its corruption laws.

Vince Cable, the acting Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday wrote to the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, and Vera Baird, demanding action. He said of the US investigation into BAE: “It is very clear Britain is dragging its feet. It is hard to see how this squares with the US-UK special relationship. The anti-bribery treaty which Britain has signed requires ‘prompt and effective’ response to requests for assistance. Their response to the US is neither prompt nor effective.” The home secretary has told MPs that the request is “under consideration”. But she conceded in a letter to anti-corruption campaigners that the US demand was “difficult and sensitive”.

Facts, Old Chap.

Then again to differentiate from the crowd, I am getting the 8 Mega pixel Phone. Don’t dare anyone tell me their 3 Megapixel camera is afterall better:D.

Hey Buddy, it’s a serious business this MMI stuff- especially if you’re an ‘insider’!!

Megapixels aside, I look forward to seeing the IN MiG-29K (imminent delivery) with its AMLCD HOTAS cockpit & Thales TopOwl-F HMD- should be pretty intuitive, huh?

Typhoon Killer or not, the Topic being “Is Typhoon a big flop” in International sales?

Yes it is, even with Dirty tactics of Blackmail(Saudi) and Backstabbing(Gripen-Austria):dev2:

In serious competition Typhoon is/will be eliminated in the first round.

EADS is offering an equity stake to India (for MMRCA) that won’t wash. I reckon Boeing’s SH is the leading contender- on capabilities, ToT & offsets.

Is the ‘Tiffy’ a flop? well will the UK MoD desperate to offload unwanted (upto 88?) planes- and with enormous bribes used to secure sales- only an idiot would think it was anything other than a flop.

Re Saudi Arabia. There was no bribery. The unproven bribery allegation dates back to Al Yamamah. There was no blackmail of the Saudis by Britain. That’s a risible idea.

:rolleyes:

OECD chides UK on corporate bribery
By Michael Peel, Legal Correspondent

Published: October 17 2008 12:35 | Last updated: October 17 2008 18:39

British business was branded on Friday with an unprecedented corruption health warning by leading industrialised nations.

They were angered by London’s dropping of an inquiry into BAE Systems’ Saudi Arabian arms deals and its failure to pursue other cases of suspected foreign bribery.

The British government launched a rearguard action in response to a stinging 79-page report issued by the anti-bribery group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Paris-based club of industrialised nations.

Mark Pieth, anti-bribery group chairman, said the warning did not mean that British companies were intrinsically “worse than others” but it did show that they were riskier to deal with because they came from a country where the approach to tackling bribery was too lax. He said: “If a country is not up to standard, if the companies are under-regulated, in dealing with them you have to be a bit more careful . . . That is a very costly procedure.”

The OECD group has no formal powers to impose sanctions against Britain or force companies to change their behaviour. But its criticisms will be widely noticed worldwide and could have both a reputational and practical impact on British multinationals. In a scathing investigation, the 37-member group, which includes many of the world’s leading economies, said it was “disappointed and seriously concerned” by Britain’s failure to honour an international anti-bribery convention. The group called for swift reform of inadequate corruption laws and tougher action against errant companies. Only one has been prosecuted to date under a 2001 law passed explicitly to outlaw bribery of foreign public officials.

The group’s attacks highlight London’s slide towards pariah status over its failure to bring bribery prosecutions against its leading multi*nationals at a time when other European countries and the US are pursuing their companies.The US has brought dozens of corruption cases while France and Germany have launched investigations into leading companies such as Siemens and Alstom, the engineering groups.

Jack Straw, the government’s new anti-corruption tsar, said legal reforms were a key part of changes plan*ned to help combat bribery.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

ELP, your U-turn on the F-35 is truly alarming!! 😮

US National Debt “clubs F-35 like baby seals”:
[ATTACH]166098[/ATTACH]

DTI 10/08
Khrizantema-S (pg.59); Mikran/Zhuk AESA (pg.14):

http://www.zinio.com/express3?issue=301898271