Telia announced it's reached a settlement with US and Dutch authorities over their investigation into bribery at Uzbekistan operator Ucell. The company agreed to pay a total of USD 965 million to put an end to the scandal.
The settlement with the US Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) found Telia violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar Dutch legislation. Its subsidiary Coscom, which operates under the name Ucell in Uzbekistan, also entered a guilty plea.
The amount of fines is less than the USD 1.4 billion named in Telia's announcement a year ago about talks on a settlement. The company said it received a 25 percent reduction in the amounts prescribed in sentencing guidelines due to its cooperation with the authorities and efforts such as changing corporate governance and dismissing all staff involved in the affair.
The case dates back to Coscom's entry on the mobile market in Uzbekistan in 2007, when it was found to have its obtained its licence with the help of illegal payments to associates of the country's president thought to include his daughter. Telia and Coscom have been under investigation since 2014, and last year Veon settled a similar case over its licence in Uzbekistan.
Swedish prosecutors are still investigating the case and have brought charges against individuals associated, including former Telia CEO Lars Nyberg. This could result in Telia being forced to pay further amounts in Sweden. Nyberg, who left the company in 2013, denied the bribery charges, Reuters reported.
In the US and Dutch settlement, the amount of ill-gotten gains from the corruption was determined to be USD 457 million. This amount due to US authorities may be reduced by any disgorgements obtained by the Swedish or Dutch courts, up to a maximum USD 208.5 million. The remaining USD 548 million in fines owed by Telia will be divided equally between the US and Dutch authorities.
Telia has since started trying to sell Ucell, as part of a wider strategy to withdraw from the Eurasia region. Earlier this year it took an impairment charge to write down the value of the holding by more than half, to around SEK 1.3 billion.
