After shaking up its entire 15-member executive committee and terminating dozens of employees, Swedish telecom Ericsson has announced that it expects to pay $1 billion to settle U.S. corruption charges involving six countries.

Chief legal officer Xavier Dedullen, who joined the Stockholm-based company in mid-2018 to help clean up the scandal, told a Sept. 26 press conference that 55 employees had been disciplined related to the investigation, with 49 departing the company. Ericsson has about 95,000 employees operating in over 180 countries.

The press conference included Ericsson's announcement that it was taking a $1.2 billion provision in its third quarter earnings statement as the estimated cost of resolving the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation, which began in 2013.

Dedullen said he "would not be surprised" if the settlement included a monitor to oversee the company for two or three years.

The company said the provision includes $1 billion to cover an estimated monetary sanction and about $224 million for "other related costs," presumably legal fees and such.

Dedullen stressed that the company has been cooperating voluntarily with investigators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Department of Justice. A company statement said the probe related to "breaches of its code of business ethics and the FCPA" in China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

Because the U.S. negotiations are ongoing, as is an alleged bribery case in Greece, company executives declined to answer specific questions at the press conference, including whether bribery was involved in the six countries.

In general, the company said its internal investigation turned up "several deficiencies, including a failure to react to red flags and inadequate internal controls."

The company said it has implemented "significant reforms."

Dedullen, who heads the legal and compliance efforts, explained the company is working with external advisers to prioritize a work plan, focusing on leadership and culture, employee training, third-party management and preemption of money laundering risks. The GC also said the enhanced compliance includes "relying more on digitalization for controls to better detect" potential problems.

A company representative declined to name the external advisers or the law firm handling the settlement negotiations. The representative told Corporate Counsel that Ericsson "is working with many different partners in different areas. We do not disclose the names of these."

Dedullen said Ericsson now has "zero tolerance for corruption. The goal is to not repeat mistakes of the past, and this work will never stop."

CEO Borje Ekholm, who joined Ericsson in 2017, called the $1 billion penalty "severe," but said the company wanted to resolve this legacy issue so it could move forward. He said there have also been "significant investments in our ethics and compliance program."

In a statement, Ekholm said, "We have to recognize that the company has failed in the past, and I can assure you that we work hard every day to build a stronger Ericsson, where ethics and compliance are cornerstones in how we conduct business."