Thai Airways says to launch corruption probe after being named in Rolls Royce case

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Airways International said on Thursday it will launch an internal corruption investigation after being named in a bribery case relating to British company Rolls-Royce Plc. Rolls-Royce agreed to pay more than $800 million in fines to resolve charges of bribing officials in six countries, including Thailand, in schemes that lasted more than a decade, justice officials in the U.S. and Britain said earlier this week. British court documents setting out the case between the Serious Fraud Office and Rolls-Royce said the company paid several intermediaries between 1991 and 2006 to facilitate the sale of Rolls-Royce engines to Thai Airways. Thai Airways was not accused in the case. (https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/serious-fraud-office-v-rolls-royce/) Thai Airways said in a statement it would launch an investigation and appropriate actions would be taken if any evidence of corruption was found. "The company conducts all its businesses in a transparent manner and without exception to corruption," the statement said. Rolls-Royce admitted to paying officials at state-run energy companies in Kazakhstan, Thailand, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Angola and Iraq more than $35 million in order to win contracts, the U.S. Justice Department said. In a statement, the company's chief executive officer, Warren East, apologised "unreservedly" for the bribery schemes. The company had since overhauled its compliance rules and cut back on using intermediaries, the statement said. Thailand's National Anti Corruption Commission said on Thursday that it was conducting its own independent investigation into the Rolls Royce case. (Reporting by Cod Satrusayang; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Muralikumar Anantharaman)