Ladbrokes and Coral owner to pay ₤ 585m over bribery accusations
5 December 2023
ByEsyllt Carr
Business reporter, BBC News
Gambling giant Entain will pay HMRC ₤ 585m to settle over bribery allegations associating with a Turkish firm that it previously owned.
The settlement was authorized by the Royal Courts of Justice in a hearing on Tuesday.
Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, will also make a charitable donation of ₤ 20m and pay towards the expenses of the case.
Its chairman added that the group had "profoundly changed" considering that the sale.
The payments become part of a postponed prosecution contract (DPA), that will be made in instalments over the yohaig code next four years.
The contract allows a prosecution to be suspended for a specified duration supplied the organisation fulfills certain given conditions.
DPAs can be used for scams, bribery and other economic criminal activity. They use to organisations, never individuals. The DPA is among the biggest business criminal settlements ever reached in the UK and the very first for the CPS.
Entain will also make a contribution of ₤ 10m towards the expenses incurred by HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service throughout the case.
The investigation by HMRC involved a Turkish-facing business that was offered by the Group in 2017. The probe involved the activities of previous staff members and previous third party suppliers.
In specific, it was looking at claims that Entain, which was then referred to as GVC, failed to have appropriate procedures in location to avoid bribery.
Since then, Entain says the group has actually carried out a detailed evaluation of its anti-bribery policies and procedures.
In a declaration, Barry Gibson, Entain's chairman, said: "This is the final step in a process that has hung over our company since HMRC launched its examination into an organization that was sold by a previous management group 6 years ago."
"We have actually co-operated thoroughly and proactively at every stage of the procedure which, I am happy to say, has been identified by the Court," he added.
"Entain has now basically and exceptionally altered. We can now focus on the future."
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