Ericsson will pay more than $1 billion to resolve corruption charges

Technology companies have been embroiled in corruption scandals before, but scandals on this scale are rare. Telecom giant Ericsson has reached a settlement with the Ministry of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly $1.1 billion in compensation, accusing many countries, including Saudi Arabia and Vietnam, of widespread corruption. The company is accused of violating the Foreign corrupt practices Act by bribing officials to obtain customers, falsifying records and failing to use "reasonable" accounting controls between 2000 and 2016. Meanwhile, SEC accused Ericsson of taking bribes between 2011 and 2017.

As a result of the settlement, Ericsson was largely not criminalized, which could lead to sanctions and other severe penalties, although its Egyptian subsidiary admitted violating the FCPA. The company will pay about $520.6 million to the Justice Department and the remaining $539.9 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. By contrast, companies like Hewlett-Packard only pay "tens of millions" to solve the smaller cost of bribery.

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm, who took office in January 2017, told the media that he thought corruption was "totally unacceptable", noting that some of them were executives. The company also said it had taken steps to improve its ethics and regulation.

The deal may not satisfy everyone. Ericsson's behavior has been going on for more than 20 years, but the company will be largely out of trouble. The company says it can use "available funds" to handle settlement. However, if their anti-corruption policies are lax, they will pay enough to stop other technology companies.