Engineering giant Rolls-Royce has “apologised unreservedly” after it was found to have paid bribes including a luxury car and millions of pounds worth of cash to middlemen to secure orders in Indonesia, Russia and China and other countries around the world.

Britain’s leading multinational manufacturer made the admissions on Tuesday at the high court in London, a day after it was revealed that it will pay £671m in penalties to settle long-running corruption allegations. In a statement read out in court the firm said it “apologised unreservedly for the conduct which has been uncovered”.

The settlement was reached with investigators from three countries – the UK, US and Brazil – who had started five years ago to scrutinise allegations that the firm had hired middlemen to pay bribes to win contracts.

Richard Whittam, a QC for the Serious Fraud Office, detailed the findings of what he said was the “largest individual investigation conducted by the SFO to date”. Whittam told the court that Rolls-Royce had admitted it had failed to stop corrupt payments in Nigeria and Indonesia, and paid bribes in Russia. Other illicit payments were made in Thailand and Nigeria.

A string of points within the agreement between the firm and the SFO – called a deferred prosecution agreement – revealed Rolls-Royce’s systemic and long-running use of intermediaries. In Indonesia, Rolls-Royce employees admitted paying $2.25m (£1.8m) and gifting a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit car to an individual. The payment was made in order that he would “show favour to Rolls-Royce for a contract” on Trent engines to Garuda Airways, Whittam said.

The company also admitted paying a competitor in Indonesia to deliberately submit an uncompetitive bid, helping Rolls-Royce to later win the bid.

The agreement read out in court also revealed how between 1991 and 2005 Rolls-Royce on three occasions paid $36.3m to intermediaries, some of which was later paid to employees of Thai Airways, in order to secure bulk orders for Trent aero engines.

In India, the court heard Rolls-Royce had concealed its use of middlemen as “general consulting services”, despite a ban imposed on companies on hiring them to win arms contracts. Rolls-Royce also admitted conspiracy to corrupt on one occasion in India. After the Indian tax authorities seized a list of names of people employed by Rolls-Royce in 2002, the engineering company paid to have the list of names retrieved.

The company admitted failure to prevent bribery in relation to two contracts in Nigeria. An intermediary hired by the company paid bribes to public officials, although Rolls-Royce later pulled out of both deals, in part over concerns that it had obtained confidential competition information.

In 2013 the company failed to prevent bribery in relation to the extension of a £5m cash credit to China Eastern Airlines in exchange of the purchase of engines for aircraft. Some of the funds paid were intended to be used for employees of CEA to attend a two-week MBA course at Columbia University, including what Whittam described as “four-star accommodation and lavish extracurricular activities”. The company also admitted failing to prevent a bribe being paid in relation to Air Asia.

Over 30m documents relating to middlemen were examined by investigators, with more than 200 interviews of current and former Rolls-Royce employees. Arrests and searches were made both in the UK and overseas. “It has been a huge task,” said Whittam.

The high court was told negotiations between the firm and investigators were “concertinaed” to complete an agreement with US regulators before Donald Trump becomes president on Friday.

He concluded the proposed fine was “broadly equivalent as if the company had pleaded guilty”.

Shares in Rolls-Royce jumped 6% on Tuesday after news of the settlement broke. News of the bigger-than-expected settlement was “negative but benign” as the authorities had agreed to allow Rolls-Royce to spread payments out over five years, said Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris.

“This is by no means a great moment in Rolls-Royce’s history but in terms of a healing process, getting the SFO settled and having trading, particularly on cashflow improving, well maybe, just maybe, Rolls is on the mend,” Morris said.

Last year, an investigation by the Guardian and the BBC identified 12 countries in which Rolls-Royce had hired “commercial agents” or advisers to help it secure high-value contracts.

Source: theguardian