ABB to pay $315m to settle US charges over S Africa bribes

Swedish-Swiss industrial company ABB agreed to pay $315 million to settle US criminal charges that it bribed state-owned Eskom of South Africa over government contracts, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday.

Two affiliates of ABB each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement, the US agency said of a settlement that was coordinated with government authorities in Switzerland, Germany and South Africa.

The issue concerns a troubled project near Johannesburg with the Kusile power station, the fourth largest coal-fired generator in the world, which has been fraught with allegations of graft. South Africa’s struggling power utility Eskom commissioned the plant in 2007.

In October eight people, including former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko, were arrested on corruption charges linked to the ABB work. Between 2014 and 2017, ABB through its subsidiaries secured “multiple” government contracts, syphoning illicit payments through subcontractors associated with an official at Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power company, the DOJ said.