Saudi Aramco confirmed that its internal auditing activities that took place a few years ago revealed irregularities of the transaction that occurred between Brazilian Embraer S.A. and Saudi Aramco.
The announcement came as a follow-up to recently published reports by the media about a corruption case involving Embraer S.A., a Brazilian company.
With assistance from the Saudi Ministry of Interior authorities, Aramco’s internal investigations established that a former employee was involved in receiving a bribe in return for facilitating the purchase of three aircrafts from Embraer.
These findings led the company to apply disciplinary actions against its former employee per its policies, according to the press release. The matter was further referred by the company to the relevant national authorities and the concurrent suspension of all business dealings with Embraer since that time.
The case dates back to 2012 when Saudi Aramco conducted an internal audit process of a transaction which led to identifying certain violations. This prompted the company to proactively initiate an internal investigation with the cooperation of concerned authorities in Saudi Arabia, which confirmed the involvement of the former employee in these violations.
Saudi Aramco also cooperated with international agencies which were conducting similar investigations into Embraer’s transactions. This cooperation also contributed to revealing the circumstances of the case and its international network. Although Aramco has ceased all future dealings with Embraer and excluded them from any future business, the company is taking appropriate legal measures against Embraer over the aforementioned violations upon the completion of the ongoing investigations by all other agencies.
