The former managing director of an Airbus subsidiary was on Wednesday acquitted by a London court of paying millions of pounds in bribes to senior officials linked to the Saudi Arabian National Guard in order to win valuable contracts.
Jeffrey Cook, who ran GPT Special Project Management, was accused of overseeing corrupt payments to middlemen to obtain lucrative deals between 2007 and 2012.
Cook, 67, stood trial at Southwark Crown Court alongside John Mason, 81, who prosecutors said was the accountant and part-owner of the business of the middlemen.
Both men were charged with a single count of corruption for allegedly paying bribes to top Saudi officials, including Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, son of the late King Abdullah.
Cook and Mason both pleaded not guilty and were cleared of a corruption by a jury who had deliberated for around 30 hours.
The case focused on GPT, a now-defunct subsidiary of Airbus , the sole business of which was to provide communications systems to the Saudi Arabian National Guard under a contract with Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD).
GPT allegedly paid just over 12% of the total revenue of its contracts to sub-contractors owned and run by Mason and his colleague, who was too unwell to stand trial.
Prosecutors said Cook and Mason were at the heart of "deep corruption" and used the money to bribe high-ranking Saudi officials and intermediaries, with more than 9.7 million pounds ($12.3 million) paid between 2007 and 2010.
Cook and Mason, however, said the British government approved millions of pounds of payments because they were in Britain's financial and strategic interests.
Tom Allen, representing Cook, said senior British officials, politicians and diplomats knew and consented to payments totalling nearly 60 million pounds from 1978, which a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia had described as a "deniable fiddle".
Cook was also charged with one count of misconduct in public office between 2006 and 2007, when he worked for the MoD. He was found guilty of that charge and is likely to be sentenced next month.
