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Telia to pay $1.4 billion in bribery probe

15 September 2016 09:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Nordic telecommunications operator Telia Company AB will have to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. and Dutch investigations into deals the company made in Uzbekistan in 2007, it said Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Telia, which is 37.3%-owned by the Swedish state, has been planning to pull out of seven Eurasian countries, including Uzbekistan, where its operations have come under scrutiny on suspicion the company to paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to secure business in the former Soviet country.

Telia has previously said an internal investigation had found the company had broken its own ethical rules but didn’t breach any laws.

“I have said on many occasions in the past that Telia Company’s entry into Uzbekistan was done in an unethical and wrongful way and we are prepared to take full responsibility,” said Telia chairman Marie Ehrling.

“We are cooperating fully with the authorities to bring clarity to the matter. With that said, our initial reaction to the proposal is that the amount is very high. We will now have to analyze the information and decide on how to proceed with the continuing discussions with the authorities.”