Ericsson Could Have Paid ISIS For Access To Iraq Transport Routes, CEO Ekholm Says; Stock Plunges

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) may have made payments to the ISIS terror organization to gain access to specific transport routes in Iraq, Bloomberg reports as per CEO Borje Ekholm’s statement to a newspaper Dagens Industri.
Ericsson had identified “unusual expenses dating back to 2018” and was yet to determine the final recipient of the money.
“What we are seeing is that transport routes have been purchased through areas that have been controlled by terrorist organizations, including ISIS,” Ekholm told the business newspaper.
Ericsson previously said that it continued to “invest significantly” into a probe regarding compliance concerns in its Iraq-based operations.
According to analysts at Handelsbanken, the suspect payments likely formed part of a corruption probe by the U.S. Department of Justice that concluded in 2019.
Ericsson said that financing terrorism is entirely unacceptable and “something we do not allow at all.”
Price Action: ERIC shares traded lower by 14.20% at $10.68 in the premarket on the last check Wednesday.