Iraq News: Swedish Based Corporation, Ericsson, in Trouble Over Corruption in Iraq
Approximately SEK 1.8 billion ($170 million USD) is being sought after a lawsuit by thirty-seven Ericsson shareholders. The coordinated legal actions were filed with the court in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm, on behalf of both pension and investment funds. This is due to Ericsson’s stock value plummeting since February 16th, 2022, when they revealed the results of their internal investigation into their Iraqi operations.
As a result of Ericsson's disclosure in February last year, the value of its shares had nearly halved by 4 August 2023, according to Reuters. The plaintiffs claim Ericsson omitted to inform the public and the stock market, which caused financial damage and damaged trust, which led to the drop in the share price.
According to Reuters, Ericsson issued an e-mail that disputed the claims in their entirety and pledged to “defend itself vigorously in this matter,” calling it a case “unprecedented” in Swedish litigation and in violation of Swedish corporate law's fundamental principles. TT said that when share prices fall, international companies are often sued overseas, mostly in the US.
The company announced in February 2022 that it had discovered serious violations of compliance rules and the Code of Business Ethics in its operations in Iraq dating from 2018.
In March 2022, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) told Ericsson that it had made an insufficient disclosure about its Iraqi probe before their 06 December 2019 agreement to defer prosecution of bribery charges brought by the DoJ and US SEC against Ericsson. According to the Department of Justice, Ericsson had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait. The SEC opened an investigation in June of 2022 into the Iraq report.