France’s Thales investigated by UK fraud watchdog for suspected bribery

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LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into suspected bribery and corruption at Thales, Europe’s largest defence technology company.

Investigators from the SFO and French authority Parquet National Financier (PNF) have informed Paris-headquartered Thales of the probe, the SFO added.

Thales employs over 7,000 staff in the UK across 16 sites and its military and civil products range from sub-hunting sonars to biometric identity systems for banks, and from satellites to seat-back entertainment systems for airlines.

SFO Director Nick Ephgrave said in a statement: “Working collaboratively with our international partners is a crucial factor in the fight against international corruption and with this case I hope to reinforce the SFO and PNF’s long-standing relationship, built on mutual cooperation and shared success.

“We will together rigorously pursue every avenue in our investigation into these serious allegations.”

A Thales spokesperson confirmed that the company was cooperating with the two authorities in an investigation related to four of its entities in France and the UK.

“The group complies with all national and international regulations. As the investigation is on-going, Thales will not comment further,” the spokesperson said.

In June, police in France, Spain and the Netherlands had searched the offices of Thales as part of a corruption probe.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Sam Tobin; Editing by Alistair Smout)