Now the world's corruption police, the United States, has struck again. One of Sweden's largest companies, telecom giant Ericsson, estimates that they will be forced to pay a record high SEK 12 billion in fines following investigations of the US counterpart to the Financial Supervisory Authority, the SEC and the Ministry of Justice, DOJ. It is about suspected bribery in China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia, Djibouti. The investigation runs until April 2017. It is not as historic as the company wants it to be. Börje Ekholm has been on Ericsson's Board of Directors since 2006 and has been its CEO since January 2017. And with a little simple googling, a picture of a company that over and over the last 18 years has been caught up with corrupt business.

With its provision to the US authorities, Ericsson is a record holder of the more dubious kind. They beat Swedish Telia's record fine of SEK 7.7 billion for their corrupt dealings with the Uzbekistan regime. Telia allegedly had no idea that when they were pouring money through a mailbox company to an unknown Uzbek woman, they also anointed dictator Ilham Karimov's daughter Gulnara.

Major business in developing countries does not take place in a vacuum, but with the help of the Swedish state. When Swedish large companies receive an order in a developing country, they are often assisted by an investment bank and the State Export Credit Committee (EKN) and Swedish Export Credit (SEK). It is state authorities that promote Swedish exports. As guarantors of loans in large export deals, they naturally impose tough demands on their customers, the Swedish large companies.

At least on the paper.

It can be noted that only in 2015, the Export Credit Board guaranteed business for Ericsson in both the OECD and developing countries for over SEK 13 billion. EKN's annual report for 2016 states that "Ericsson's strong position in the world market means that EKN's guaranteeing is largely about telecoms, year after year."

EKN's dealings with large companies are based on trust, some blue-eyed naivety would say. What EKN requires of you as a large company is that you submit a certificate that you do not have or will not bribe in connection with the transaction. In addition, you are required to provide a certificate stating that you are aware that EKN's liability for the guarantee may be terminated if "a bribe or other undue reward has occurred in the export business". Svensk Exportkredit also writes that they do not accept corruption or bribery and do not participate in such transactions.

EKN tells SVT that they should investigate whether they have been involved in the suspected bribery transactions. Former sales manager at Ericsson, Jan Wäreby, now sits on EKN's board. Maybe he can come up with some input.