Former Ericsson Employee Charged for Alleged Role in Foreign Bribery Scheme

The Department of Justice charged a former Ericsson employee for his alleged role in a scheme to pay approximately $2.1 million in bribes to high-level government officials in the Republic of Djibouti and conspiring to launder funds to promote the scheme. The defendant remains at large, according to the DoJ.

According to court documents, Afework “Affe” Bereket, 53, a dual citizen of Ethiopia and Sweden, allegedly engaged in the scheme between 2010 and January 2014. During that time, Bereket was the account manager for the Horn of Africa, a region that included Djibouti, while on a long-term assignment for Ericsson in Africa. According to the indictment, Bereket participated in a scheme to bribe two high-ranking officials in Djibouti’s executive branch and a high-level executive at Djibouti’s state-owned telecom to obtain a contract with the company valued at approximately $24 million. 

To complete the bribery scheme, the DoJ alleges that Bereket and others caused an Ericsson subsidiary to enter into a sham contract with a consulting company and approve fake invoices to conceal the bribe payments. To promote the scheme, Bereket caused Ericsson to transfer the funds to and through bank accounts in the United States.

In 2019, Ericsson entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DoJ in connection with a criminal information filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charging the company with conspiracies to violate the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). An Ericsson subsidiary, Ericsson Egypt Ltd., pleaded guilty on the same day to one-count of criminal information, charging it with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. As part of its agreement, Ericsson paid a total penalty of over $520 million.

Bereket is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted of both counts, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.