A leaked report on the telecommunications company Ericsson, seen by the BBC News, revealed that the company has exposed the lives of local workers contracting with it at risk, by insisting that they continue to work in the lands controlled by the organization of what is known as the Islamic State in Iraq.The report concluded that the company's behavior led to the kidnapping of those who are contracting with it by the organization's militants.
Ericsson is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, and she is a major player in launching 5G networks in the United Kingdom, after the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which stopped dealing with due to security concerns.
The last disclosure came in the wake of Ericsson's CEO, Bori Ikholm, last week - in response to the leaked document - that the company paid money to reach the fastest transportation in Iraq at that time, and that the Islamic State may have been the beneficiary.Eriscon has lost more than $ 5 billion in her market value after the comments of her CEO.
The document obtained by the International Federation of Investigative Journalists (ICIG) and participated with the BBC and 29 other media partners, taken from an internal investigation of the company in the activities of corruption and bribery in 10 countries, conducted in 2019. This investigation was discovered dangerous and disturbing dealings of the company in Iraq.
The report found that when ISIS seized Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, in June 2014, a prominent lawyer at Ericsson recommended closing and ending its operations in Iraq, but Ericsson's senior managers ignored these recommendations.The document says that they felt that such a procedure was "premature", and would "destroy" Ericsson's actions in the country.
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The report concluded that the company's insistence on continuing the analysts who are analysts with it in working in the territories controlled by the Islamic State, endangering the lives because the hardline organization held a number of those working as hostages.
Affan was among a group of engineers who are doing field work for Ericsson, while the Islamic State took control of the city.It was upon him to communicate a message on behalf of the company to obtain permission from the organization to continue working there.
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But as soon as Irfan arrived, he was found in a pick -up truck full of militants who soon held him, as German Public Radio told NDR, another media partner of the International Federation of Investigative Journalists.
After that, one of the organization's fighters used the Affan phone to call Ericsson directors, and demanded the company to pay $ 2.4 million to work in the region, says Affan.
"The organization's fighter said that if Erikson did not pay what he asked of it, your Messenger will target this and anyone else who works for you, we will bring them here, one by one."
Affan was placed under house arrest, and said that the director of Ericsson company then stopped responding to his calls."He abandoned me, closed his phone and disappeared."
BBC and the International Federation of Investigative Journalists contacted Ericsson managers - who are still working with the company - who received the call from the organization, but they refused to comment.
Affan, whose name was released in the Ericsson report, was released a month later.While Affan confirms that Ericsson has abandoned it, the report says that one of the partners in Ericsson "has made arrangements" with the Islamic State to secure its release and allow the company to continue its work in Mosul.But the report did not specify what these arrangements are.
However, this was not the only possible deal of Ericsson with the organization of what is known as the Islamic State.The report found that the company's transport employee used a highway across the country called the "speed of speed", which does not pass through government checkpoints, but it passes through the lands under the control of the Islamic State.Ericsson investigators have found evidence of possible bribes of the organization's fighters along that road.
A senior government telecom official in Mosul, who did not want to reveal his name for fear of losing his job, told the International Federation of Investigative Journalists: “Ericsson was fully aware of what is happening. There is no sane person dealing directly with the Islamic State. All of them do so fromDuring secondary local contractors. The militants of the organization took a percentage of every year that paid any project or work in Mosul, so they managed to collect millions of dollars.
The leaked document reveals Ericsson's internal achievement of the spread of the culture of corrupt activities and the payment of bribes of millions of dollars in 10 different countries.Corruption has expanded to the point of allocating an informal fund to finance Lebanese officials over several years, reaching a total of about one million dollars, along with gifts such as a luxury trip worth $ 50,000 to Stockholm to the former Lebanese Minister of Communications Peter Harb.
But Harb told the BBC that he went on a three -day business trip paid from Ericsson, and added that he did not receive any gifts and did not get any special advantages, as he said he was not aware of any internal investigation by Ericsson.
Investigators revealed that $ 50,000 was paid to a charitable association linked to the wealthy Barzani family, which rules the semi -independent Kurdistan region of Iraq, and owns the mobile phone network.The report was unable to determine the authority to which the money went, and a spokesman for the Director General of Cork, Sirwan Barzani, did not respond to our questions, but he said that "Sirwan Barzani is looking forward to the day when the Islamic State will end completely, so that he and his companions can be from the PeshmergaSpend more time with their families. "
In 2019, Ericsson reached a billion dollar settlement with the American authorities, after allegations of corruption in five countries.Ericsson did not explain whether the new information was revealed to the US Department of Justice at the time of settlement.
In turn, the US Department of Justice refused to comment on the Ericsson case, and Ericsson has refrained from answering the BBC questions, but it said it continues to work with an external advisor - to review the results issued by achieving 2019 to determine any additional measures that the company should take.
