Thales she is under investigation for corruption. As a judicial source reported to Reuters, This week the police searched the company’s offices located in France, Spain e Netherlands. “Thales emphasizes that it strictly complies with national and international regulations. The company has developed and implemented a global compliance program that meets the highest industry standards,” a company spokesperson responded.
He accused Thales
Thalesa French group, which has specified that it wishes to collaborate with the competent authorities, is involved in two lines of investigation on charges of criminal association, influence peddling and corruption.
The first dates back to 2016, the year in which the company was accused of having bribed a foreign public official, as well as criminal association and money laundering linked to the sale of submarines and the construction of a naval base in Brazil.
A year ago, a second investigation was opened for suspected corruption and influence peddling, criminal association and money laundering related to the sale of military and civilian equipment abroad.
What does Thales do?
Specialized in military suppliesThales focuses on the production of radars, projectiles, ammunition, satellites and air defense systems that it sells worldwide. The group operates in 68 countries with 81,000 employees worldwide.
In Italiawhere it has been present for over 70 years, boasts 3,200 employees and 7 industrial sitesHere the group can count on a solid portfolio of solutions related to the Defense and Security, Aerospace and Space, Digital Identity and Security sectors.
Above all, it represents a world-class excellence. Thales Alenia Spacea joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), a global manufacturing company in the space sector that has been providing high-tech solutions for Telecommunications, Navigation, Earth Observation, environmental management, scientific research and orbital infrastructures for over forty years. With a turnover of 2.2 billion euros in 2023, this company alone employs 8,600 people in 10 countries, and has 17 sites in Europe, but also an industrial plant in the United States.
Also in our country it collaborates with the best Italian universities and research centers, such as the Polytechnic of Milan, where it sponsors the Observatory on Cybersecurity and Data Protection, and the Universities of Florence, Pisa and Siena.
Innovation but also attention to a more sustainable future. In the mobile connectivity sector, Thales collaborates with operators in the transition processes to eSIMs and provides advanced connectivity solutions also for the latest generation 5G networks, Trusted Digital ID solutions and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
What is the group at risk? The Microsoft and Ericsson cases
The Thales case closely resembles those involving other multinationals, forced to collaborate with the authorities or in other cases to pay a rather hefty fine.
In 2022, Microsoft It ended up in a storm after the statements of a former employee, who in an interview with Wall Street Journal accused him of paying bribes in Africa and the Middle East. In that case, the story ended with Microsoft collaborating with government agencies.
In 2019, the multinational telecommunications Ericsson She was indicted by American authorities for paying bribes in several countries around the world for more than fifteen years.
The scandal prompted the group’s top brass to negotiate a plea bargain with a fine of one billion euros and the obligation to cooperate fully with justice and report all wrongdoing.
Subsequently, a series of other documents brought to light by the international consortium of investigative journalists, including an email exchange dating back to 2011 between two Italian managers of the company, revealed the payment of a series of bribes paid by Ericsson in Iraq to treasurers and ISIS fighters. The case ended with a new plea bargain and the payment of other 206 million dollars.
