The telecommunications equipment maker made illegal payments to do business in five countries, violating US law, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing a source.
The SEC did not release the name of the whistleblower in accordance with whistleblower protection rules that prevent the regulator from releasing this information. Under Commission rules, a whistleblower can receive a reward of 10 to 30 percent of the fines collected in SEC complaints as a result of a tip, as long as more than $1 million is received in the budget.
Ericsson agreed in March to plead guilty and pay an additional fine of nearly $207 million to resolve the charges. Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, who filed charges in 2019, said the Ericsson rapes occurred in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Kuwait and Indonesia between 2000 and 2016.
In its complaint, the SEC said that Ericsson’s subsidiaries used intermediaries to bribe officials in several countries.