Kuwait is among a host of countries that are being investigated by prosecutors in multiple countries for allegedly receiving bribes from Airbus, the European planemaker.
On 31 January, Airbus agreed to pay a record US$4 billion in fine after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors in the United Kingdom, France and United States over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back at least 15 years.
Investigations have so far revealed bribery in the purchase of aircrafts by Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Ghana, while countries being investigated for the possibility of having received kickbacks in the purchase of Airbus aircraft include Brazil, China, Japan, Turkey and Kuwait.
As the fallout from the bribery scandal reverberated around the world, heads of those who headed purchases of Airbus in recent years began to roll in many countries. In Malaysia, the CEO and the Chairman of Asia’s largest budget airline, AirAsia, agreed to step down so as to facilitate investigations by Malaysian authorities.
In Ghana, accusations of Airbus payments to a relative of a government official in connection with the purchase of military transport planes,has led to a political storm. In Colombia,the national flag carrier Avianca said it had hired a law firm to investigate its relationship with Airbus and determine if it had been a victim of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered a full investigation after the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) reported that Airbus had hired the wife of a SriLankan Airline executive as its intermediary in connection with aircraft negotiations. South Korea’s national carrier Korean Air and Taiwan’s China Airlines declined to comment on allegations of payments to intermediaries over the jet purchases.
Investigators looking into the scandal have reported a global network of agents or middlemen in transactions across the Airbus Group’s business, which was controlled from a cell in Paris where the group had part of its headquarters. The annual budget of this cell was said to be around $300 million and was allegedly spent to ‘facilitate’ the purchase of Airbus aircraft over its main rival Boeing.
It will be recalled that national carrier, Kuwait Airways had signed a contract in 2014 for the purchase of 25 aircraft from Airbus, including the narrow-bodied A320 neo aircraft and the long-range wide-bodied A350. Delivery of the new planes began in 2019 after the government gave an financial guarantee endorsing the deal.
