Czechs ask US for help in jet fighters probe
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The Czech Republic has asked the United States to help with a corruption inquiry into a lucrative 2002 deal to buy 24 JAS-39 Gripen jet fighters from BAE Systems, the prosecutor general's office said Thursday, according to AP.
The agency was citing Prosecutor General Renata Vesecka’s spokeswoman that she approached the U.S. Department of Justice in July after receiving a help offer from the U.S. to look into the case. Britain's BAE Systems, the world's No. 2 defense contractor, said in February it would pay fines totaling more than $400 million after reaching settlements with Britain's anti-fraud agency and the U.S. Justice Department to end decades-long investigations into the company for allegations of bribery, including for contracts in Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Saudi Arabia. Czech prosecutors had investigated the Gripen case but dropped it twice in the past, saying in 2002 and again last last year that no crime was committed. |