BAE denies secretly paying Saudi prince more than one billion pounds

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — British defence firm BAE denied a news report on Thursday that it had secretly paid a Saudi Arabian prince more than one billion pounds in connection with Britain's biggest weapons deal.

There was "no case to answer", the company said, denying any wrongdoing.

The Guardian newspaper had alleged that more than one billion pounds (two billion dollars) was paid into accounts controlled by the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, over at least a decade.

The Guardian said it understood that details of the payments had been uncovered by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as part of its probe into transactions behind the 43-billion-pound Al-Yamamah deal signed in 1985.

But the SFO stopped the...