BAE Systems pleads guilty!

[Kachanchabuseta]

Was just watching BBC News now, the breaking news came up that BAE have been fined £500,000 plus £250,000 costs in connection with Tanzania fraud and failure to keep records.

More details still to flow........

£500000 + £250000 =£750000 = 1,165,238 USD= 1,666,290,340.00 TZS (one billion six hundred....)

Mmmh mbona kama ndogo vile something behind this?

 

[RayB]

Sasa hapo kama kweli cdm wana meno wajitokeze kwa hili tuone.

Hivi JK anahusikaje kwa hili? sio Mkapa kweli aliyehusika?

Haya ni mambo ya kisheria na kwa vile wengi hum jf hawajui sheria ndio wanajiropokea tu. Afadhali yangu mimi niliyejisomea Madrasa

JK anahusika kwa kuwakataza PCCB wasiwashulikie wahusika wakubwa kwani naye ana link nao inawezekana kabisa kuwa wengine walihusika as figures and people like JK were on their back hiding

 

[RayB]

£500000 + £250000 =£750000 = 1,165,238 USD= 1,666,290,340.00 TZS (one billion six hundred....)

Mmmh mbona kama ndo vile something behind this?
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=TZS

Its near to nothing. Yaani haisogelei hata kidogo hiyo bil 60 ya TBC

 

[Mallaba]

sasa ngoja tusubiri Hosea atasema nini tena

 

[RayB]

Hukumu hiyo haina uhusiano wowote ule na makubaliano kati ya BAE na serikali ya UK...........................where are you getting the damn lies?

Hivi kuna logic yoyote ile kuwalipa mafisadi na kuwapongeza kwa ujambazi dhidi ya raia wa TZ?

Thanks bra, help me on this, so many lies

 

[Mrembo]

BBC just mentioned the issue the 1 billion is the right figure unless na wao wamekosea

 

[Kagalala]

This is an insult to Tanzanians. Anyway, even our government cannot do anything. Actually this is in the favour of Chenge and Hoseah led by Kikwete

 

[Wacha1]

He said BAE 'did not want to know the details' of what Vithlani did with the £7.7m, and threatened to stop the case to allow for evidence to be presentedto establish what happenedto the money. BAE admitted-there was 'a high probability' that the cash was used to help it win the contract.

​

Tanzania watakwambia wanasubiri ushahidi mahakamani kwamba Vithlani alichukua £7.7 million ... ..... ... khe khe kheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee​

 

[The Finest]

Hosea sijui atasema nini?

 

[Wacha1]

BBC just mentioned the issue the 1 billion is the right figure unless na wao wamekosea

Hukumu hapa chini hiyo ni faini tu ....... BAE watailipa Tanzania £30million na kuondoa hiyo faini hivyo serikali ooops WTZ wataambulia 29.25 million chacha chijui kwa sababu mwanzo walisema watawalipa Watanzania kupitia NGO's ili Kikwete na Wezi wenzake wasione kitu hapo ndani ngoja tusubiri.

BAE Systems fined for Tanzania accounting offence​

BAE Systems has been fined £500,000 for failing to keep proper records of payments it made to an adviser in Tanzania. The defence group paid £7.7m to two firms controlled by businessman Shailesh Vithlani ahead of winning a £28m Tanzanian military radar contract. The ruling by a judge at Southwark Crown Court comes after BAE had already agreed a deal with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

BAE also has to pay £225,000 costs. The judge, Mr Justice Bean, said he was under pressure to keep the court fine to a minimum. Under the agreement struck between the SFO and BAE, the company would deduct the fine from the £30m it had offered to the people of Tanzania to settle the case. "The structure of this settlement agreement places moral pressure on the court to keep the fine to a minimum so that the reparation is kept at a maximum," said the judge. He also criticised another part of the deal which he said gave any member of BAE Systems group "blanket immunity for all offences committed in the past, whether disclosed or not".

He said the agreement was loosely and hastily drafted.

 

[Mpita Njia]

Was just watching BBC News now, the breaking news came up that BAE have been fined £500,000 plus £250,000 costs in connection with Tanzania fraud and failure to keep records.

More details still to flow........

sasa hiyo Bn60 TBC wameitoa wapi?

 

[Jituoriginal]

Tbc wengi makajanja walikimbia umande. Tatizo hesabu .

 

[Wacha1]

Waungwana hiyo ya TBC wanaongelea mpunga wote kwa ujumla i.e £30million ni sawa na Tshs 60Billion (Kwa hesabu za haraka haraka i.e. £1 = 2000.00 Shs) sasa inabidi waondoe hiyo faini ya laki 5 plus costs ya laki 2 na nusu ndio wabongo watarudishiwa ... ukisoma post yangu hapo juu utaelewa zaidi kama nimekukwaza ... ..

 

[Drifter]

Its a big shame on them all when you see details of this case and the extent the corruption was

The sad thing is the plea bargain entered that "sanitizes" the deal between BAE and Vithlani of the stench of corruption. Anyway, they say you can't have it all. At least the "between-the-lines" context of the GBP 7.7 million payment is now an open secret and tha shame of the Government can no longer be hidden.

 

[RayB]

Waungwana hiyo ya TBC wanaongelea mpunga wote kwa ujumla i.e £30million ni sawa na Tshs 60Billion (Kwa hesabu za haraka haraka i.e. £1 = 2000.00 Shs) sasa inabidi waondoe hiyo faini ya laki 5 plus costs ya laki 2 na nusu ndio wabongo watarudishiwa ... ukisoma post yangu hapo juu utaelewa zaidi kama nimekukwaza ... ..

Tatizo lingine ni kuwa zitalipwaje na kwa nani na kama ni kwa njia ya NGO, ni NGO gani Tanzania iko sensitive na expenditures zao? Utakuwa ni mzunguko wa from fisadi to BAE and from BAE back to fisadi again hence mafisadi watakuwa wamebefit 2 times

 

[mgodi]

Hizi fedha zitumike kulipia deni la dowans.

wewe unawaza deni la Dowans tu? wakati tunamatatizo mengi kwny hii TZ yetu.

 

[nzehe]

ni £ 8.4m

 

[Donyongijape]

Kelele za Hawa jamaa Campaign Against Arms Trade
inawezekana zimesaidia,watz wa Uk sijui walikuwa wapi?

Aisee,wazungu wanatupigania sisi tumelala tuu..kawaidaa!

 

[RayB]

I cant stop being ashamed of my beloved country, everyday you get surprises. I wonder how many awful things our leader have committed so far, and still they got some balls to stand before the public and proclaim their innocence-am GUTTED with all this.

 

[Egongos]

Judge questions BAE deal over payments for Tanzania contract

Mr Justice Bean tells Southwark Crown court it appeared that BAE had paid 'whatever was necessary' to get contract

Rob Evans and David Leigh

BAE has steadfastly argued that it did not make corrupt payments to secure a contract from the Tanzanian government. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian
A controversial deal between prosecutors and Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE, was today challenged by a judge who said the company appeared to have been engaged in bribery.
BAE had reached a deal with the Serious Fraud Office earlier this year in which it agreed to plead guilty to a relatively minor accounting offence. BAE steadfastly argued that it did not make corrupt payments to secure a £28m contract from the Tanzanian government.
But today, Mr Justice Bean questioned the heart of the agreement, repeatedly saying that payments originating from the company appeared to be "corrupt" and for "bribing decision-makers in Tanzania". He told Southwark crown court that it appeared that BAE had paid "whatever was necessary to whomever it was necessary" to get the Tanzanian contract. He added that it appeared that the payments were disguised so that BAE "would have no fingerprints on the money". "They just wanted the job done – hear no evil, see no evil," he said. The judge is due to sentence BAE tomorrow .
In February, BAE struck the plea deal with the SFO and American prosecutors to end years of corruption investigations into its business methods. The arms giant agreed to pay £30m in corporate penalties in return for admitting accounting irregularities over a radar contract with Tanzania. Anti-corruption campaigners have argued that the deal is too lenient and cosy.
Today, Victor Temple, the QC for the SFO, told the court that BAE had set up a system of "covert" and "overt" agents to sell their arms around the world. The "overt" advisers "conducted their work openly as BAE's in-house representatives", he said, while the "covert" agents' work was "highly confidential".
He said Sir Richard Evans, BAE's chairman, had "personally approved" the use of a businessman, Sailesh Vithlani, as its "covert" agent to secure the Tanzanian radar contract. Approval was also given by Mike Turner, then a board member who later became BAE's chief executive.
Temple said BAE paid $12.4m (£7.7m) to Vithlani between 2000 and 2005 – around a third of the radar contract's value.
BAE had paid much of this money through its front company based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), known as Red Diamond, to a Panama-based company controlled by Vithlani.
Today the court heard that the SFO and BAE had agreed a series of "carefully- worded" statements to put before the judge. These included:
• The admission by BAE that "there was a high probability that part of the $12.4m would be used … to favour BAE" while the contract was being negotiated;
• "It was not now possible to establish precisely what Vithlani did with the money which was paid to him";
• That the SFO did not say that any of this money was "in fact improperly used";
• That the SFO accepted that BAE had not engaged in corruption.
The judge called these statements the "critical part" of the case, repeatedly asking barristers for the SFO and BAE what the money had actually been used for.
He said: "I have to establish what has happened. If there is no money to be used for corrupt practices, why is 97% of it paid through a BVI company controlled by BAE to another [offshore] company controlled by Vithlani?"
When Temple said Vithlani had been hired to lobby for BAE, the judge questioned why the businessman was paid so much for his work.
Temple said that lobbying was legitimate work. "To lobby is one thing, to corrupt another".
Temple added that BAE had committed the accounting offence as Vithlani had been recorded in its books as performing "technical services", but he had no knowledge of any technical matters.
David Perry, QC for BAE, argued that the firm had not admitted any corruption and should only be sentenced for the one offence they had confessed to in the plea bargain.
The judge had threatened to call witnesses to testify as he wanted to established the purpose of the payments, but later decided to go ahead with passing sentence tomorrow.