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Indonesia has vowed to sue the UK for a share of a record €991mn bribery settlement struck with European aerospace group Airbus, a move that ramps up the pressure on the British government to resolve the dispute.
The UK, along with the US and France, reached the deal in 2020 after the aircraft maker admitted to offences spanning multiple countries, including kickbacks to executives at Indonesia’s state-owned airline Garuda.
Jakarta has long complained that it was shut out of the settlement, despite helping the UK’s Serious Fraud Office — the lead agency investigating Airbus’ dealings with Garuda — with the probe.
Yasonna Laoly, Indonesia’s minister for law and human rights, told the Financial Times the country would sue the UK to annul the settlement and force a renegotiation that would give Jakarta a share of the fine.
The statement follows increasing frustration in the Indonesian government over what it has called the lack of engagement from London, despite several attempts to get the British government to engage.
Indonesian officials said Laoly sought to discuss the issue with his British counterpart on a visit to London in July but his direct UK equivalent at ministerial level was on holiday.
“We are extremely disappointed that our request has not received appropriate attention,” Laoly said in a statement. “We will file our claim to the English court with the purpose to annul the DPA [deferred prosecution agreement] . . . and renegotiate and conclude [a] DPA that includes the rights of the victim state.”
He added that Indonesia had contributed “crucial evidence” to the UK investigation into Airbus, which had helped to secure the DPA.
Indonesia’s intention to bring a claim was intended to show that it is “serious”, said Cahyo Muzhar, Indonesia’s director-general of legal administrative affairs. “They think that we won’t go to court. I think they will be a little bit shocked. This is the last thing that they expect to come from Indonesia.”
As part of the stand-off, Indonesia continues to refuse requests from the SFO for help in a separate investigation into Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier until the Airbus case is addressed.
Indonesia’s promise to take the dispute to court comes just months before a key meeting of the United Nations Convention on Corruption, where the question of compensation for victim states is due to be hotly debated.
Many countries are unhappy about the outcome of foreign bribery probes led by western countries as they are often settled through corporate plea bargains. A study in 2021 by the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime found that less than 1 per cent of those non-trial settlements had been returned to affected countries.
“It is increasingly untenable for the UK Treasury to pocket large fines in foreign corporate bribery cases, particularly in cases where the victim state has contributed evidence,” said Sue Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, the anti-corruption charity. “Failure to pay compensation will impact our ability to have meaningful anti-corruption partnerships in developing countries.”
In 2020, Airbus agreed to pay regulators in the US, UK and France a total of €3.6bn, the largest global foreign bribery settlement on record at the time. The UK’s share included penalties for corruption and bribery in Indonesia. Airbus’s three-year probation period under the terms of the DPA struck with the SFO ended in January this year.
The UK government said it was “committed to its international obligations, in line with due process”. The two governments have a “strong track record of co-operating and a highly valued partnership in tackling international criminality,” it added. The SFO and Airbus declined to comment.
