Rolls-Royce, the British engineering group, has been accused of paying $20m (£12.5m) and a blue Rolls-Royce car to the son of the former president of Indonesia to win a contract to supply engines.
Rolls confirmed last week to the stock market that it has passed information to the Serious Fraud Office in relation to “concerns about bribery and corruption involving intermediaries in overseas markets”.
The announcement from Rolls came after the SFO requested information from the company about allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China.
The SFO is understood to have made the request following a series of online postings by a man claiming to be a former Rolls employee.
Dick Taylor, identified as a former technical liaison manager for Rolls who worked for the company for more than 30 years, claimed in comments made below online articles about Rolls that the company had made payments to Tommy Suharto, the son of the former Indonesian president who was jailed in 2002 for giving an order to kill a supreme court judge.
Mr Taylor wrote that Mr Suharto was paid to persuade Indonesian airline Garuda to buy Rolls’s Trent 700 engine for the A330 aircraft it was buying.
A Rolls executive in Indonesia supported the payments, he writes. The allegations are understood to relate to the early 1990s, when Garuda began ordering the A330.
There is no suggestion that Garuda was aware of any alleged wrongdoing. Rolls, which hired law firm Debevoise & Plimpton to conduct an internal investigation after the SFO’s request, declined to comment on the specific allegation.
In its statement last week, however, chief executive John Rishton said: "I want to make it crystal clear that neither I nor the Board will tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance.
“This is a company with exceptional prospects and I will not accept any behaviour that undermines its future success.”
telegraph.co.uk
Rolls confirmed last week to the stock market that it has passed information to the Serious Fraud Office in relation to “concerns about bribery and corruption involving intermediaries in overseas markets”.
The announcement from Rolls came after the SFO requested information from the company about allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China.
The SFO is understood to have made the request following a series of online postings by a man claiming to be a former Rolls employee.
Dick Taylor, identified as a former technical liaison manager for Rolls who worked for the company for more than 30 years, claimed in comments made below online articles about Rolls that the company had made payments to Tommy Suharto, the son of the former Indonesian president who was jailed in 2002 for giving an order to kill a supreme court judge.
Mr Taylor wrote that Mr Suharto was paid to persuade Indonesian airline Garuda to buy Rolls’s Trent 700 engine for the A330 aircraft it was buying.
A Rolls executive in Indonesia supported the payments, he writes. The allegations are understood to relate to the early 1990s, when Garuda began ordering the A330.
There is no suggestion that Garuda was aware of any alleged wrongdoing. Rolls, which hired law firm Debevoise & Plimpton to conduct an internal investigation after the SFO’s request, declined to comment on the specific allegation.
In its statement last week, however, chief executive John Rishton said: "I want to make it crystal clear that neither I nor the Board will tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance.
“This is a company with exceptional prospects and I will not accept any behaviour that undermines its future success.”
telegraph.co.uk
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