Stockholm District Court said it has acquitted the three defendants in the Telia bribery case of all charges, by unanimous verdict of six judges. A forfeiture claim against Telia has also been dismissed. It said it believed that transactions linked to payments Telia's Uzbek partner really had happened, but the indictment in other parts lacked clarity, and there were gaps in the investigation.
The court said it had not been proven that alleged bribes were given to someone who belongs to the circle of people who could be held liable for taking bribes. As crimes have not been proven, the forfeiture claim against Telia has also been dismissed.
The court said the charges concerned alleged bribery from 2007–2010 through agreements and transactions with an Uzbek local partner. In the court case, a claim of forfeiture of USD 208.5 million was also directed against Telia.
The main hearing ran for 42 days in the second half of 2018 and extensive investigations were presented. The three defendants were Telia’s former CEO Lars Nyberg, former head of the Eurasian operations Tero Kivisaari, and a former lawyer for the company.
The transactions with the Uzbek partner that the prosecutor presented concerning contracts and related payments to accounts mainly of the company Takilant, which the district court found had links to former Uzbek president Islam Karimov's daughter, Gulnara Karimova, have objectively been considered to have occurred, it said. However, the district court found that the indictment in other parts lacked clarity, and that there are gaps in the investigation.
Presiding judge Tomas Zander said that in order for criminal liability for bribery to apply, the recipient of any alleged bribes must belong to the limited circle of people who, under the relevant law, could be held liable for accepting bribes. It has not been proven in the case that Gulnara Karimova held any such position with connection to the telecom sector, which was been the prosecutor's main alternative.
The prosecutor's alternative allegations were not successful, either, the court announced. The district court has therefore acquitted the defendants from all charges and dismissed the claim of forfeiture.
Telia Company responded to the ruling by saying that USD 208.5 million will be paid to the Netherlands or the US. This will have no financial effect for Telia as it was included in the global settlement that it reached in 2017 to pay fines and disgorgements of USD 965 million to the concerned authorities regarding historical transactions in Uzbekistan. Those disgorgements amounted to USD 417 million, whereof USD 208.5 million has already been paid to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
