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TeliaSonera CEO Resigns Following Uzbek Bribery Report
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TeliaSonera's President and CEO Lars Nyberg has resigned from the company - the day that a damning report criticized the company's internal controls when dealing with Uzbekistan authorities in 2007.
Although the report found no evidence of bribery, it was highly critical of the way the deal was not properly vetted, especially when considering the corrupt nature of the local authorities in that country.
When the report from the law firm into the Uzbek scandal was presented last night, Lars Nyberg was told by the other members of the board that there would be significant changes to the Board, and that as a result, he no longer had their support.
As a result, lacking the support of a functioning board of directors, he announced this morning that he is resigning with immediate effect.
In a statement, he said "I am greatly relieved that Mannheimer Swartling has not found anything to support the allegations that TeliaSonera committed bribery or participated in money laundering. This is something that I have been convinced of since these allegations emerged."
"At the same time, the Mannheimer Swartling review criticizes TeliaSonera, not least that we did not conduct a sufficiently in depth analysis into the identity of our local partner in Uzbekistan before we invested in the country or into how this partner came to own the assets that were later obtained by TeliaSonera. Even if this transaction was legal, we should not have gone ahead without learning more about the identity of our counterparty."
He added that this is "something I regret."
The company's current Chief Financial Officer, Per-Arne Blomquist has been named as acting President and CEO until the company can find a permanent replacement, and settle the make up of the new board of directors.
Tags: [teliasonera] [lars nyberg] [Sweden] [Uzbekistan]
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