Airbus has reached an agreement in principle with the French Parquet National Financier, the UK Serious Fraud Office and the US authorities to settle the investigations into allegations of bribery and corruption as well as compliance with the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Although no further details have been revealed, analysts expect the agreement, which still needs to be approved by French and UK courts, and US court and regulator, to be in the billions, far surpassing the £671 million Rolls-Royce settled with the SFO in 2017 for similar allegations.
Once approved, this agreement will end the four-year long probe into Airbus, which has since overhauled its compliance procedures and reduced its reliance on third-party agents to broker deals, which were at the heart of the initial bribery and corruption investigation.