UK defence company Ultra Electronics has accepted responsibility for failing to prevent bribery and agreed to pay £15 million following a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation. The penalties, part of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) approved by the High Court on Friday, stem from an investigation launched in 2018 after the company self-referred following corruption allegations in Algerian media.
Ultra will pay a £10 million penalty and £4.8 million to cover SFO investigation costs after admitting it failed to prevent bribery related to three public sector contracts in Algeria and Oman sought through agents. The contracts included a £200 million deal with Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, technology solutions for Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, and encryption technology for Algeria’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The Algerian contracts, which were ultimately not secured, were expected to generate £1.4 million in profit.
Graham McNulty, interim director of the SFO, stated: “Bribery undermines that trust and corrodes the systems on which society relies. Today’s outcome underlines the Serious Fraud Office’s determination to investigate and hold companies to account where those standards are breached.”
Ultra, now owned by US-based private equity group Advent International after being acquired by Cobham in 2021 for £2.6 billion, must reform its business practices and provide annual reports to the SFO for three years to demonstrate compliance. The agreement marks a significant win for the SFO, which has faced setbacks with collapsed cases against Serco, G4S, and London Mining. The agency is also searching for a new leader, and its last corporate bribery penalty was a £281 million fine for Glencore in 2022.
Helen Taylor, deputy director of nonprofit Spotlight on Corruption, welcomed the DPA but criticized the penalty level, warning that defence groups might view such fines as a cost of doing business. She said: “This DPA is a welcome deal to end a drought of corporate bribery successes for the SFO. Coming at a time of growing geopolitical instability and rising defence spending, this enforcement action sends an important signal to those in the defence industry tempted to cut corners to secure lucrative public contracts.”
Three years earlier, Ultra reached a similar agreement in Canada, paying over 10 million Canadian dollars (£5.4 million) for bribing officials in the Philippines and defrauding the government. The SFO’s investigation, originally focused on Algeria, expanded to Oman in 2023 and to worldwide operations in October 2024. The SFO noted that negotiations had previously stalled due to lack of conditions for a meaningful agreement but resumed after changes in ownership, structure, and leadership.
Ultra stated it fully cooperated and that the SFO acknowledged its exemplary cooperation and enhanced compliance programme. The company said: “The agreement reached between Ultra and the SFO, approved today by the court, recognises Cobham Ultra’s status as a model of good practice within the defence industry.”
