This material belongs to: Reuters.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish prosecutors said on Friday they would charge an employee of Canadian aircraft and train maker Bombardier BBDb.ST on suspicion that he and several others at the company had bribed an Azerbaijani official to secure a contract worth around $340 million.
Prosecutors in March said a 37-year-old Russian man had been arrested on suspicion of bribery and that several Bombardier employees were suspected of colluding with Azerbaijani officials in a 2013 rail equipment deal.
The Prosecutors said they had obtained evidence in the form of emails after a raid of Bombardier’s operations in Sweden last October.
“He still denies the accusation,” Cristina Bergner, the unnamed arrested man’s lawyer, said on Friday, declining further comment.
Barbara Grimm, Bombardier’s head of communication for Railway Control Solutions, wrote in an email to Reuters: “We take these allegations very seriously as they assert conduct that does not reflect our values or the high standards we set for ourselves, our employees and our partners.”
Grimm said Bombardier would support an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the project, but had no further comment as legal proceedings were ongoing.
In their March statement, the Swedish prosecutors said Bombardier had won the tender in question after competitors who had offered better prices were disqualified by Azerbaijan’s rail authority.
