A bridge-building firm is expected to plead guilty to making improper payments in connection with contracts obtained in Ghana and Jamaica.
It is alleged Reading-based Mabey & Johnson made the payments between 1994 and 2001 breaching United Nations sanctions.
Mabey is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court where it is also expected to plead guilty to a separate charge relating to payments made to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
A plea bargain is believed to have been agreed for the overseas corruption charges.
The case is the first of its kind for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which began investigations into the firm’s actions when it appeared in a UN report on the Oil For Food scandal in Iraq.
In the report Mabey, which makes bridges based on Sir Donald Bailey’s portable Bailey bridges, was listed as one of the many firms that was said to have paid “kickbacks” to the Iraq regime for modular bridge contracts.
The firm denied these claims at the time, but last year four directors said they would be stepping down following on from the investigations.
For the latest charges Mabey is expected to face a significant fine over the case, which is the first where a UK company has been prosecuted on overseas corruption charges.
