Until the United Kingdom dropped its investigation of BAE Systems Plc, the small group that oversees a global anti-bribery treaty was riding a crest of success. The United States was prosecuting a record number of corporate bribe cases. Last year Germany transformed its corporate governance forever by prosecuting Europe’s largest engineering company, Munich-based Siemens AG. And the French are actively pursuing that country’s engineering giant, Paris-based Alstom, on corruption allegations.
The first major prosecution for corporate bribery in the United Kingdom would have cemented the treaty’s influence. But it was not to be. Instead the U.K. dropped its probe of BAE payments made to a Saudi prince and others, after Saudi Arabia threatened to withhold anti-terrorist intelligence and to cancel a huge arms contract with BAE. The U.K.’s actions seriously undermined the treaty, called the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. It is a tool of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group of 30 industrial nations committed to democracy and the market economy.
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