Britain quizzes Airbus staff in Saudi fraud probe

Britain's Serious Fraud Office has questioned staff at Airbus and the Ministry of Defence in an ongoing probe into alleged corruption in Saudi Arabia, the European defence giant said Wednesday.

"Airbus Group understands that four former and current employees were recently interviewed -- along with MoD officials -- as part of a wide ranging SFO investigation into subsidiary GPT," an Airbus spokesperson said.

"At this stage we cannot add anything further to our previous statement on this matter."

The SFO had launched a criminal investigation into the activities of GPT Special Project Management Ltd in August 2012, regarding allegations relating to the company in Saudi Arabia.

GPT was a local subsidiary of EADS which worked exclusively for the Ministry of Defence. EADS meanwhile changed its name to Airbus Group earlier this year.

An SFO spokesperson said it would neither confirm nor deny that the arrests were in relation to the ongoing probe into GPT.

"In connection with a Serious Fraud Office investigation, we can confirm that a search warrant has been executed and a number of arrests have been made," the spokesperson said.

"Officers from the National Crime Agency assisted the SFO with its operation."

Back in 2011, the Daily Telegraph had reported that the SFO suspected EADS of bribing Saudi officials to help it obtain a 2.0-billion ($3.1 billion, 2.5 billion euro) contract.

A former EADS employee had claimed that colleagues allegedly used middlemen to give luxury cars, jewellery and briefcases of cash to the officials, according to the British newspaper.