Tweet
An international court has ordered France and defence electronics group Thales to pay $830m in compensation to Taiwan over a sale of warships in 1991.The panel of arbitrators ordered the payments to make up for unauthorised commissions paid to help Thomson-CSF, which became Thales, win the deal.
The contract for the six navy frigates forbade commissions to intermediaries.
Thales said its share of the fine was about 27% or $230m, but says that it will appeal against the ruling.
The company, which is part-owned by the French state, said it disputed "the very grounds of this decision" by the International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration.
It had been responsible for 27% of the value of the contract, while the French state had been responsible for the remainder.
The French ministry of defence declined to comment.
In the deal, in which the French government played a crucial role, Taiwan's navy bought six Lafayette frigates from Thomson-CSF and the state-owned shipbuilder DCN for $460m each, nearly double the original budget. The suspicious death of the head of procurement for the Taiwanese navy, Captain Yin Ching-feng, who was found floating off the coast of Taiwan in 1993, eventually triggered a corruption investigation. Six former naval officers, including a vice-admiral, were later indicted in connection.
In 2001, the Taiwanese authorities filed a complaint alleging that the anti-corruption clauses in the contract had been breached.
French prosecutors investigated claims that bribes were paid in the deal, but they were unable to ascertain who might have benefited.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.