Ladbrokes and Coral Owner to Pay £585m over Bribery Allegations

Ladbrokes and Coral owner to pay ₤ 585m over bribery accusations

5 December 2023

ByEsyllt Carr
Business press reporter, BBC News

Gambling giant Entain will pay HMRC ₤ 585m to settle over bribery allegations relating to a Turkish company that it formerly owned.

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The settlement was approved by the Royal Courts of Justice in a hearing on Tuesday.

Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, will also make a charitable donation of ₤ 20m and pay towards the costs of the case.

Its chairman added that the group had "profoundly altered" since the sale.

The payments belong to a delayed prosecution arrangement (DPA), that will be made in instalments over the next 4 years.

the yohaig code contract permits a prosecution to be suspended for a defined period supplied the organisation satisfies certain given conditions.

DPAs can be used for fraud, bribery and other financial criminal activity. They use to organisations, never individuals. The DPA is one of the biggest business criminal settlements ever reached in the yohaig code UK and the very first for the CPS.

Entain will also make a contribution of ₤ 10m towards the costs sustained by HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service throughout the case.

The examination by HMRC included a Turkish-facing business that was sold by the Group in 2017. The probe included the activities of former workers and former 3rd party suppliers.

In particular, it was taking a look at claims that Entain, which was then referred to as GVC, failed to have adequate procedures in location to avoid bribery.

Since then, Entain says the group has actually carried out a detailed evaluation of its anti-bribery policies and procedures.

In a declaration, Barry Gibson, Entain's chairman, stated: "this promotion code is the last action in a procedure that has hung over our service considering that HMRC introduced its investigation into a business that was sold by a previous management group six years ago."

"We have actually co-operated thoroughly and proactively at every stage of the process which, I am delighted to state, has been recognised by the Court," he added.