Breaking news on Wednesday — the UK’s Serious Fraud Office has arrested three directors of Alstom in the UK on suspicion of bribery and corruption.
The SFO’s press release, in full:
Three members of the Board of ALSTOM in the UK have been arrested on suspicion of bribery and corruption, conspiracy to pay bribes, money laundering and false accounting, and have been taken to police stations to be interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office.
Earlier this morning search warrants were executed at ALSTOM business premises (5) and residential addresses (4) at locations in Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and London. This operation has involved 109 SFO staff and 44 police officers and Accredited Financial Investigators from Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, West Mercia and Staffordshire Police Forces and the Metropolitan Police Service. The three men arrested during this operation are aged 52, 51 and 44.
Code-named Operation Ruthenium, the investigation by the SFO is into the suspected payment of bribes by companies within the ALSTOM group in the UK. It is suspected that bribes have been paid in order to win contracts overseas, and that this has involved associated money laundering and other offences. The SFO has been working closely with the Office of the Attorney General and Federal Police in Switzerland and a number of Police Forces in the UK.
Commenting on today’s action, SFO Director Richard Alderman said, “The SFO is committed to tackling corruption. We are working closely with other criminal justice organisations across the world and are taking steps to encourage companies to report any suspicions of corruption, either within their own business or by other companies or individuals”.
Gosh. This comes one day after a joint FSA-SOCA raid on alleged City insider trading.
That also involved raids with a cast of hundreds, but no funny-named operation.
From Wikipedia:
Ruthenium (pronounced /ruːˈθiːniəm/ roo-THEE-nee-əm) is a chemical element that has the symbol Ru and atomic number 44. A rare transition metal of the platinum group of the periodic table, ruthenium is found associated with platinum ores and used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys.
Of course, we suppose it would be absolutely churlish of us to suspect the SFO of playing one-upmanship here. Perish the thought.
More as we get it.
Related links:
Who is Julian Rifat? – FT Alphaville
Breaking insider trading news of the day… – FT Alphaville