- The Guardian, Monday 12 October 2009
An MP with BAE factories in his constituency has called on Gordon Brown and his colleagues to intervene once again in the bribery case being drawn up against the arms company.
His call came as legal sources said a slimmed-down prosecution dossier was being prepared at speed by the Serious Fraud Office and would be given, as early as the end of this month, to Patricia Scotland, the attorney general. She has the power of veto in certain corruption cases.
Nigel Evans, Tory MP for the Ribble Valley, said he wanted the prime minister, the trade secretary, Peter Mandelson, and the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, to intervene with the SFO.
"Tony Blair set a precedent as prime minister by taking a personal and active interest in the last investigation, in the national interest," he said.
In 2006 Blair caused international uproar when, supported backed by Jack Straw, another politician with local interests, in his nearby Blackburn constituency, he personally forced the SFO to drop criminal investigations into BAE's secret payments to prominent Saudis. Straw is now justice minister. He and other ministers regularly sit beside the attorney general in cabinet, despite earlier promises to reform that role and give prosecutors full independence.
In his letter to ministers at the weekend Evans wrote: "There are obviously concerns that BAE needs to allay, but at a time of economic distress, a crippling blow to the UK's biggest manufacturer would be bad for all concerned."
Criminal charges, he said "could have huge ramifications for UK manufacturing". He added: "Over the past 17 years I have worked very closely with BAE."
Richard Alderman, SFO director, this month confirmed plans to prosecute the firm after it failed to meet a deadline for negotiating a plea bargain whereby sizeable penalties would be paid for alleged corrupt deals in the Czech Republic, Tanzania, South Africa and Romania.
One source said: "This bold move against BAE and its lawyers has left Alderman with no friends."
The public nature of the SFO's announcement could leave Scotland exposed if she appeared to bow to political pressure, and it also makes BAE's traditional lobbying tactics more difficult.BAE said it would only answer the SFO's allegations "if the director of the SFO obtains the consent that he seeks from the attorney general".
The finishing polish to the prosecution dossier is being carried out by an external legal team led by Timothy Langdale QC. Legal sources said he was refining the evidence to retain only the simplest and strongest elements, unlike traditional SFO "catch-all" prosecutions, involving trials which can last for months. This could mean that cases in Romania and South Africa, with the most complex foreign evidence, go out of the window.
BAE has indicated it is willing to settle the case, but has jibbed at the £500m suggested penalty.
Sources close to the negotiations say that an acceptable cash figure could still be arrived at if Alderman were willing to sit down privately with the BAE chairman, Dick Olver, and thrash out a deal.
There have been recent corruption cases of a similar nature involving big companies. In France, individual state oil executives from Total went to jail for up to five years. In Germany, the electronics firm Siemens paid more than €2bn in fines and legal costs to settle worldwide bribery allegations. In the US the oil firm Halliburton and linked companies accepted penalties of $600m as well as the prospect of jail for a senior executive, and extradition from London of a British solicitor, Jeffrey Tesler, accused of carrying bribes to Nigeria.
