Airbus Kept in Touch With Middleman on Controversial Kuwait Helicopters Deal as Bribery Probe Unfolded

Emails obtained by OCCRP reporters show that Senior Airbus executives corresponded with an intermediary regarding controversial helicopter deals in Kuwait after the European company came under scrutiny for its dealings with intermediaries.

Key Findings

• Airbus’s current CEO corresponded with a middleman in a Kuwait helicopter deal as the company’s dealings with intermediaries came under investigation.
• In October 2015, months after Airbus apparently stopped paying intermediaries, a senior executive thanked the middleman for agreeing to a reduced payment.
• The correspondence helped the middleman win an arbitration against Airbus that required them to pay him 12 million euros.
• A Kuwaiti parliamentary probe alleged that Airbus engaged in “fraud and deception” to secure the helicopter deal and paid “commissions” despite promising not to. Airbus declined to comment.

Introduction

• Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury personally communicated with a middleman in a Kuwait helicopter deal even as the aerospace giant was under investigation in other countries for using intermediaries to bribe customers.
• Airbus Helicopters, led by Faury at the time, has said it stopped paying intermediaries in the spring of 2015.
• But correspondence obtained by OCCRP and French outlet Revue XXI shows Faury was still sending emails well into 2016 to an intermediary, Farid Abdelnour, about a contract to provide Kuwait’s defence ministry with 30 military helicopters. Another Airbus executive emailed Abdelnour in 2016 about payment for his work.
• Abdelnour later used some of his correspondence with Airbus to successfully bring a 12-million-euro arbitration case against Airbus for non-payment of invoices.
• After Kuwaiti officials learned of the arbitration, they investigated whether the payment constituted “commissions” on the contract, despite assurances by Airbus that none had been or would be paid, according to leaked correspondence between Airbus and the Kuwaiti government.
• In January, Kuwait’s parliament accused Airbus of using “fraud and deception” and claimed 349 million euros in wasted Kuwaiti public funds.
• In 2020, Airbus struck “deferred prosecution agreements,” $3.9 billion deals with French, U.K., and U.S. prosecutors to avoid charges over suspect payments made to middlemen to secure contracts in at least a dozen countries.
• The deals are “deferred prosecution agreements,” which suspend criminal proceedings in exchange for the defendant meeting certain conditions and paying a fine.

Click below to read the full investigation by Sana Sbouai, Clément Fayol, and Antoine Harari.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/as-bribery-probe-unfolded-airbus-kept-in-touch-with-middleman-on-controversial-kuwait-helicopters-deal