TeliaSonera paid US$965M for buying its way into Uzbekistan

Sweden-based Telia (then TeliaSonera) entered Uzbekistan's mobile market with the help of what the SEC later described as at least US$330 million in bribes — payments to a shell company under the guise of lobbying and consulting services that never actually occurred. The shell was controlled by an Uzbek government official who was a family member of the President and in a position to influence officials to benefit Telia's business.

The bill arrived in stages. US and Dutch authorities opened a probe into suspected bribery over Telia's Uzbekistan licence in spring 2014. In February 2016, peer VimpelCom settled a similar case for US$795 million. In September 2016 the US and Dutch authorities proposed a settlement worth about US$1.4 billion — chairman Marie Ehrling conceded Telia had entered the market 'in an unethical and wrongful way' but called the proposed amount very high.

A year later the negotiating was over. In September 2017 Telia agreed to pay US$965 million to resolve charges with the SEC, the US Department of Justice, the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie and the Swedish Åklagarmyndigheten: US$457 million in SEC disgorgement plus a criminal fine of more than US$508 million from the DOJ, with portions offsettable against the Dutch and Swedish payments. Telia's total to the four agencies had to be at least US$965 million.

The settlement, nearly three times the size of the bribes the SEC said were paid, closed a case whose arithmetic was simple: a market entry priced as consulting fees, exposed by four agencies working together. The fiction that the payments were legitimate services had held long enough for the money to move — and the final bill still arrived.