15th Sep 2021 08:56
(Alliance News) - British American Tobacco PLC paid a bribe to the former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe and has also paid bribes in South Africa, the BBC reported on Monday.
The BBC also said BAT has used illegal surveillance to damage rivals.
In a joint investigation with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the University of Bath, the BBC obtained thousands of leaked documents which showed how BAT funded a network of almost 200 secret informants in southern Africa.
Most of the work was outsourced to a South African private security company called Forensic Security Services, BBC said.
FSS was officially tasked with fighting the black-market cigarette trade, however former employees have told the BBC that they broke the law to sabotage BAT's rivals.
Evidence strongly suggests FFS bribed customs officials and police officers, and that BAT secured access to information from the police camera network, which was used to spy on its rivals, the BBC reported.
FSS tapped the phones of BAT's competitors, BBC said, as well as placed tracking devices on their delivery vehicles and bribed staff to hand over information. On top of this, the documents showed that senior staff from BAT's London headquarters personally recruited and paid some of the informants working at competitors' factories.
BAT said: "We emphatically reject the mischaracterisation of our conduct... Our efforts in combating illicit trade have been aimed at helping law enforcement agencies in the fight against the criminal trade in tobacco products."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-58517339
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
British American Tobacco