Paying Off Van Gogh and Fu Fu: Inside the Airbus Bribery Web
- Documents reveal how planemaker rewarded key decision makers
- Backhanders included sports sponsorships and golf trips
Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
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Airbus SE has long since disbanded the so-called strategy and marketing unit at the center of its record $4 billion bribery settlement, but for years it had quite a heyday.
According to documents filed by U.S. prosecutors on Friday, the 150-person team used its $300 million annual budget to fund bribes and win aircraft sales in a slew of countries around the globe. The payoffs went to government officials, airline executives and their relatives -- all to illegally influence decision makers on deals that could reach into the tens of billions of dollars.