Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka must demand compensation from Airbus, over the Airbus- Sri Lankan bribery deal.
Speaking in Parliament today, he said that Airbus was paying a thumping amount as compensation to the countries who are affected so Sri Lanka must also demand compensation due to the massive losses incurred by SriLankan Airlines.
Sri Lanka is entitled to receive fines from France based Airbus SE as this company agreed to resolve corruption charges with authorities in affected countries.
Airbus SE, a France based global provider of civilian and military aircraft agreed to resolve corruption charges with authorities in the United States, France and the U.K tied to a multi-year scheme. The company agreed to pay fines totaling over $3.9 billion, Lexology .com web site reported recently.
Airbus also resolved charges with the the Parquet National Financier, (PNF) by agreeing to pay more than 2 billion Euros or about $2.29 billion pursuant to an agreement with that regulator.
The company settled, in addition, with the U.K. Serious Fraud Office related to bribes in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia and Ghana.
Airbus agreed to pay about 990 million Euros or approximately $1.09 billion. The PNF and the SFO investigated the company as part of a joint investigative team.
According to disclosures in courts in Washington DC, Paris and London Airbus for years conducted a “massive scheme to offer and pay bribes” involving very senior executives in 16 countries including Sri Lanka’s ailing national carrier, SriLankan Airlines.
Mr Wickremesinghe told parliament that the new government should request for all information pertaining to the case from UK’s Serious Fraud Office and UK Export Finance who revealed details of the massive fraud.
According to the Statement of Facts issued on 31 January 2020 as part of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement reached between Airbus and the prosecuting authorities, in 2013, Airbus engaged Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayaka the wife of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SriLankan Airlines Kapila Chandrasena through a straw company which was registered in Brunei.
The Magistrate Court has ordered to remand both of them for money laundering charges.
Airbus employees offered up to US$16.84 million to influence SriLankan Airlines’ purchase of 10 Airbus aircraft and the lease of an additional 4 aircraft to an intermediary company registered in Brunei under Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayaka the wife of former CEO at SriLankan Airlines.
The Airbus had paid out US$ 2 million of the agreed amount to the company, it said.
(LI)