UK judge halts trial of two defendants in Saudi bribery case

A judge has halted a trial of two men alleged to have been involved in bribing Saudi Arabian officials to secure lucrative defence contracts for the UK government.

The jury sitting at Southwark Crown Court in London were dismissed by Judge Simon Bryan on Thursday who imposed reporting restrictions on the reasons for halting proceedings in anticipation that a retrial could take place at a later date.

The case brought by the Serious Fraud Office relates to a UK government deal to provide communications services to the Saudi Arabian National Guard that was delivered by GPT Special Project Management, a now defunct unit of Airbus.

Jeffrey Cook, 65, former managing director of GPT and John Mason, 79, former financial officer at two of GPT’s subcontractors, were accused of paying almost £10mn in bribes to Saudi officials between 2007 and 2012.

Cook was also charged with misconduct in a public office between 2004 and 2008 over commissions he was paid on deals when working for the UK Ministry of Defence. Both defendants deny all charges.

The SFO alleged that GPT paid 12.3 per cent of its revenue to other companies, including Simec, a foreign-registered company part-owned by Mason, which was then used to bribe senior Saudi officials.

Barristers for Cook and Mason argued during the trial that the two men were carrying out orders from officials at the highest level of the UK defence ministry to pay individuals, including Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the late king of Saudi Arabia, millions of pounds in order to retain the lucrative contracts.

Cook’s barrister Ian Winter QC told the court during the trial that the British government had not “merely acquiesced or tolerated those payments” but “actually required those payments to be made”.

He said the indictment did “not begin to plumb the depths of what the UK government has been involved in since the late 1970s.” 

The jury was told by barristers for the two defendants that the British government had authorised “every penny” of the payments to Saudi officials.

Graham Brodie QC, who was representing Mason, told the court his client was not aware that the payments he was authorising were designed to “secure the approval of contracts for GPT” nor that they “would be routed to members of the Saudi Arabian National Guard”.