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In 2019, Ericsson signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the DoJ, paid more than $1 billion to resolve a different series of corruption probes, and agreed to cooperate with the department for ongoing investigations.
Ericsson said the DoJ had now determined that Ericsson breached the DPA by failing to make disclosures related to an internal investigation subsequent to signing the DPA. Ericsson said it was cooperating with the DoJ and that it was too early to predict the outcome of the matter.
Findings of the 2019 internal investigation, made public last month after media reports, revealed breaches of its compliance rules in Iraq, including payments made to bypass Iraqi Customs, at a time when militant organisations, including Islamic State, controlled some routes.
“Based on our current review, we believe the situation described in the media reports on the conduct of Ericsson employees, vendors and suppliers in Iraq, going back to 2011, is covered by Ericsson’s 2019 internal investigation,” Ericsson said in a statement.
Ericsson said the investigation could not determine if any Ericsson employee was directly involved in financing terrorist organisations.
“Based on our current assessment of the media reports, we do not believe they change this conclusion,” it said.
