£11 million fine for Macmillan over Sudan tender corruption

Global publishing firm Macmillan Publishing has been fined more than $AUD16.5 million for possibly benefiting from ‘unlawful conduct’ over a tender to provide education material in Sudan.

The penalty is the result of a long-running joint investigation between the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), World Bank and the City of London Police. The examination began following a 2009 report by the World Bank, which found an agent acting for Macmillan attempted to bribe a bank official to win a tender to provide education material in Sudan. The company referred itself to the SFO after the findings (Law briefs, 24 June 2010).

A subsequent SFO investigation, which looked at public tenders involving the company in Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia between 2002 and 2009, found “it was impossible to be sure that the awards of tenders to the company in the three jurisdictions were not accompanied by a corrupt relationship”.

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