On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that Swedish telecoms company Ericsson (BS:ERICAs) did not mislead investors about its compliance with U.S. anti-bribery laws. The lawsuit was filed in March 2022 by a Boston-based pension fund after Ericsson’s stock dropped sharply following allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that it was in breach of a 2019 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA).
Judge William Kuntz in Brooklyn, New York, wrote that Ericsson had issued “ubiquitous warnings” to investors raising “the possibility of future compliance failures” after the agreement. Ericsson had agreed to pay $206 million and plead guilty in March for violating the DPA agreement.
Under the conditions of the 2019 DPA, Ericsson paid more than $1 billion to resolve a series of corruption probes, involving bribery allegations in China, Vietnam and Djibouti, and agreed to cooperate with the department for ongoing investigations.
The ruling is a victory for Ericsson, which has been working to restore investor confidence in the company. It remains to be seen if the company will be able to fully recover from the scandal.