London, January 30: The first ever criminal case has been filed against a former middleman of the British weapons company, BAE Systems.
Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, one of BAE’s former confidential agents, was charged with bribery over arms deals by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The charges were formally brought by the SFO director, Richard Alderman.
Mensdorff-Pouilly, 56, of Austria, was accused of conspiring to make bribe payments to promote the sale of fighter jets to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. He has not yet entered a plea.
The corruption investigations into the British weapons manufacturer began five years ago after disclosures in the British newspaper Guardian.
The SFO said Mensdorff-Pouilly was charged with conspiracy to give corrupt payments between 2002 and 2008 to agents and officials of central European governments “as inducements to secure, or as rewards for having secured, contracts from those governments for the supply of … Saab/Gripen fighter jets by the BAE Systems.”
——-Agencies