Airbus Group

On 31 January 2020, the Serious Fraud Office entered into a record-breaking Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the global aerospace company Airbus SE following its approval by Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the Queen’s Bench Division. The indictment, which has been suspended for the term of the DPA, covers five counts of failure to prevent bribery and involved Airbus’ Commercial and Defence & Space divisions. The conduct covered by the UK DPA took place across five jurisdictions: Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Ghana between 2011 and 2015.

Under the terms of the DPA, Airbus SE agreed to pay a fine, disgorgement of profits and costs amounting to €991m here in the UK, and in total, €3.6bn as part the world’s largest global resolution for bribery, involving authorities in France and the United States. On the same day as entering into a DPA with the SFO, Airbus SE also reached a Convention Judiciaire d’Intérêt Public with the Parquet National Financier (PNF) and a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice and US Department of State. In total, these agreements together with the SFO DPA required Airbus SE to pay approximately €3.6 billion (including €2,083,137,455 to the PNF and €525,655,000 to the US authorities) at the exchange rate at time of payment. Please see the full press release here. The DPA, Statement of Facts and Judgment of Dame Victoria Sharp can be found here.

In February 2020, Airbus SE paid its financial penalty, disgorgement and costs to the SFO. In GBP, this figure was £830m in total, comprising of disgorgement of profits of £491m, financial penalty of £333m, and the SFO’s reasonable costs of £6m. This has been transferred to the Treasury for onward transmission.

Conclusion of Deferred Prosecution Agreement

Full information is available in the Statement of Facts, agreed by the SFO and Airbus SE. The Agreement, Statement of Facts, the judgment of Rt. Hon. Dame Victoria Sharp and Details of Compliance are published below.

31 January 2020

• Deferred Prosecution Agreement – SFO v Airbus SE
• Deferred Prosecution Agreement – Statement of Facts – SFO v Airbus SE
• Judgment of Rt. Hon. Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the Queen’s Bench Division

25 September 2020

• R v Airbus SE – Addendum to Statement of Facts – SFO v Airbus SE

2 March 2023

• Details of Compliance – Discontinuance of proceedings on expiry of deferred prosecution agreement

Information about how Deferred Prosecution Agreements work in the UK is here.

Following a detailed review of the available evidence, the SFO will not be prosecuting any individuals in connection with its investigation of Airbus and others.