A Telia phone store in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo: Casper Hedberg/Bloomberg

A Stockholm court has dropped criminal bribery charges filed against three executives of Swedish telecom Telia Co., including its former general counsel for Eurasia.

Ex-general counsel Olli Tuohimaa, along with the former CEO and the former deputy chief, were accused in 2017 of paying bribes to obtain telecom business in Uzbekistan. The charges were dropped Feb. 15. All three had denied the charges, and could not be reached for comment on the ruling.

The charges came after the Stockholm-based company agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in penalties to the U.S. and the Netherlands in what prosecutors called “one of the largest criminal corporate bribery and corruption resolutions ever.” The company signed a three-year deferred prosecution agreement for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and it cooperated in the investigation of the individuals.

As part of remedial efforts, the company replaced its executives and board of directors in 2013, and ended its business dealings in Eurasia in 2015.

Jonas Bengtsson, group general counsel hired by Telia in 2013 to help it through the scandal, explained in a company statement Feb. 15 that the outcome of the trial does not change the company's position that the settlement was in its best interests.

“The recently concluded court case and Telia company's settlement with the U.S. and Dutch authorities partly concern the same events, but they have been tried according to different legal frameworks—U.S. and Dutch laws for the company and Swedish law for the former employees,” Bengtsson said. “It is not unusual that an event is tried under different laws in different countries and that the outcome may differ.” He could not be reached for further comment.

Marie Ehrling, chair of the Telia's board, said in the statement, “I hope that [the Feb. 15] ruling will bring an end to a painful and costly chapter in Telia company's history.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the company and its subsidiary paid about $331 million in bribes to an Uzbekistan government official between 2007 and 2010 so that Telia could enter the Uzbek telecoms market and receive other favorable treatment. The official reportedly was a deputy foreign minister and the daughter of Uzbekistan's dictator at the time. She was arrested and sentenced to five years in confinement in her country.

Details of the bribery scheme were contained in the DOJ's criminal information filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan, including how the three company co-conspirators entered contracts with the foreign official, set up a shell company and funneled several payments from New York bank accounts to the official, and even granted a share of stock to her “with the option to sell the shares back to Telia at a substantial profit.”

The three former executives argued at trial that their actions did not constitute bribery because the foreign official was not in charge of granting licenses to telecom companies. Prosecutors countered that she did in fact control the decisions about such licenses, even if someone else granted the licenses.

In dismissing the charges, the Stockholm District Court disagreed with the prosecution, saying under Swedish bribery law the money must be paid to someone with direct control over licensing. Prosecutors could still appeal the court's ruling.