TeliaSonera under investigation in the US
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TeliaSonera under investigation in the US

Nordic operator TeliaSonera is under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for its purchase of a spectrum licence in Uzbekistan.

In October 2012, TeliaSonera was accused of a number of wrongdoings in its purchase of a 3G licence in Uzbekistan in 2007, and the company is now under official investigation.

“The Department of Justice has sent a request to TeliaSonera to hand over documents,” the company said in a statement today.

“Furthermore, Telia has also received a request from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to hand over documents to the SEC related to Uzbekistan.”

Part-owned by Swedish and Finnish authorities, TeliaSonera also revealed today that Dutch authorities had asked the company to post a deposit between €10-20 million into potential financial claims against its local holding company.

“The common denominator for our contacts with the authorities is that we are asked for information about TeliaSonera’s investments in Uzbekistan and documents related to these,” said Peter Borsos, head of group communications at TeliaSonera.

“TeliaSonera cooperates fully with all the authorities, as we are doing with the Swedish prosecutor, in order to gain full clarity on these issues.”

The allegations have led to the exit of a number of senior executives at the company including CFO Per-Arne Blomquist in November 2013.

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