Airbus SE is being forced by French courts to pay millions of dollars to partners who it alleges used corruption to broker airplane deals in strategic countries.
In one case, the airplane manufacturer was made to settle an outstanding $825,000 bill from a go-between that helped secure sales in China even after Airbus said it had evidence the business relationship was “tarnished” by corruption, according to an unreported ruling released earlier this month. Airbus argued this “called for suspending all payments.”
The court proceedings have put Airbus in a seemingly contradictory situation. The manufacturer is under investigation for paying bribes to secure overseas contracts and says it’s cooperating and turning over evidence from an internal investigation. But…
