JAS Gripen - inquiry is dropped

The Swedish prosecutor's findings state that JAS Gripen was sold by bribes in an export deal with the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa. Despite this, the three Swedish inquiries regarding the suspected bribery have been dropped.

Christer van der Kwast calls it "an extremely serious matter":
"But I can not fully verify that Saab participated in the bribery payments," he says to Swedish Television, "Uppdrag Granskning" ("Assignment: Investigate").

LAST WEEK, "Uppdrag Granskning" revealed the contents of a secret report from the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO), where evidence was presented from the bribery scandal concerning the Swedish JAS Gripen. The British Prosecutors conclusion is clear: the JAS Gripen affair was corrupt.

The Swedish chief prosecutor Christer van der Kwast has come to the same conclusion, that the JAS Gripen deals, that Saab carried out together with their British partner (BAE Systems), were corrupt.
"The inquiries showed that BAE, using a sophisticated payment arrangement, has hidden large payments that can be linked to the campaigns in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and South Africa and have made it possible to bribe the decision makers in these countries," writes the prosecutor in his findings.

"It is very serious, both in terms of the systematics and the amount. It involves hundreds of millions of Swedish crowns in hidden payments in several countries, and there is strong reason to believe that bribery also has occurred," says Christer van der Kwast to "Uppdrag Granskning".

DESPITE this Christer van der Kwast decided on Tuesday afternoon to drop the inquiry against Saab.

"Obviously there are things that put a strain on Saab. But I have made the judgement that in court I could not prove that some representative for Saab has intentionally participated in the payment of the bribes," says van der Kwast.

IT WAS after Uppdrag Granskning´s 2007 report about secret agents, hidden billion-crown-commissions and witness testimonies about bribes, that the Swedish chief prosecutor started three inquiries on suspected bribery in the export deals with JAS Gripen in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and South Africa.

The Chief Prosecutor writes in his findings, that the inquiries involve events that happened from the middle of the 1990?s. It was in from the late 1990?s and to beginning of this millennium, which the deals with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and South Africa were done.

BUT DUE to the period of limitation for corruption, according to Swedish law, the prosecutor is not able to prosecute for what has happened before the 1st of July 2004. Even other weaknesses in the Swedish law have affected the inquiry.
"We do not have laws that effectively cover this type of arrangement between middlemen and consultants", says Christer van der K´wast

The Chief prosecutor has questioned over thirty people within Saab, but he says that he has not got a reasonable explanation to what the multi-billion Swedish crowns (that have been channeled from Saab and BAE via front companies and middle men to agents in the Gripen
campaign) have been used for.

"No, I have not got that [explanation]," he says.
Q: "How believable then is Saab?s point of view that it was about normal business activity?"
"I do not want to answer that except to say; in my opinion the collected evidence is not enough to prosecute any representative of Saab."

THE SWEDISH inquiry has had very limited resources - only one investigative policeman, which has been strongly criticized by among others OECD.

Last week "Uppdrag Granskning" also told how several times Christer van der Kvast has been subject to indirect pressure at the official level.

"They have emphasized, that these inquiries are of course damaging to Swedish business," says van der Kwast.
Q: "But who is it who says that?"
"I don't want to go into that. I don't want to say more than that. But from my position, from the policeman?s position, it is understood as a sort of indirect hint to take it carefully."
Q: "Has it affected your decision to drop the inquiry?"
"Not for a second."

Christer van der Kwast?s findings come less than a day before he will finish his job as Chief for the National Agency against Corruption. Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 12 midday the prosecutor retires.

SAAB is putting the affair behind them. Saab claims to have followed the laws and rules in regard to the JAS deals.
"The decision is completely in line with what we have always claimed", says Cecilia Schön Jansson, Saab´s Communication Director, in a press release.

By Sven Bergman