Swedish company’s CEO suggests payments were made for transport through IS-controlled areas in Iraq
A member of the Iraqi forces checks mobile phones as troops advance towards Mosul’s Old City on 18 June, 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State group. (AFP)
https://www.middleeasteye.net-By MEE staff
Employees of telecoms company Ericsson may have bribed Islamic State officials in Iraq, the company’s CEO said on Wednesday.
The comments by Borje Ekholm caused the Swedish giant’s share price to tumble by ten percent in opening trading on the Stockhold stock exchange.
Speaking to Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri, Ekholm said people linked to his organisation had “paid for road transport through areas controlled by terrorist organisations, including ISIS.
“With the means we have, we haven’t been able to determine the final recipients of these payments,” he added.
The comments came in the wake of an internal investigation at Ericsson, as well as enquiries by state broadcaster SVT and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which according to the company found “serious breaches of compliance rules and the company’s code of business ethics” with regards to vendors, employees and suppliers in Iraq between 2011 and 2019.
A statement by the company said it had found “evidence of corruption-related misconduct” which included “making a monetary donation without a clear beneficiary; paying a supplier for work without a defined scope and documentation; using suppliers to make cash payments; funding inappropriate travel and expenses; and improper use of sales agents and consultants”.
The investigation also found violations of Ericsson’s internal financial controls, as well as conflicts of interest and non-compliance with tax laws. The statement said several employees left the company as a result of the investigation, which had faced internal obstruction, alongside other disciplinary actions. However, the statement added that “the investigation could not identify that any Ericsson employee was directly involved in financing terrorist organisations”.
Ekhold said the company had spent “considerable resources trying to understand this as best we can” and had disclosed its findings with US officials. “Financing terrorism is completely unacceptable and something we do not allow at all,” he added.
IS resurgence
IS has not regained territory since 2019, but a recent prison break attempt in Hasakah, northeast Syria, was yet another sign that the group still has weapons and loyal combatants.
In the nearby al-Hol camp, where Kurdish authorities hold women suspected of being IS members and their children, the group has assassinated detainees, beheading several people.
Eleven Iraqi soldiers were killed in January in an overnight attack by IS fighters against their base in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala.
The US State Department’s envoy to the US-led coalition battling the group warned last July that deteriorating economic conditions in Iraq and Syria are paving the way for IS to reconstitute.