Whistleblowers Michael Paterson, GPT’s Financial Controller from 2007 to 2010, and Lt. Col. (retd.) Ian Foxley, who was GPT’s Programme Director from June to December 2010, uncovered evidence of irregular payments for “bought-in services” amounting to GBP 14.9 million between 2007 and 2010. These funds were channeled through two Cayman Islands-registered companies, Simec and Duranton, which they suspected were intended for bribes to Saudi decision-makers in relation to the SANGCOM contract. No legitimate services appear to have been provided by these companies.

In addition, GPT supplied luxury vehicles worth GBP 216,350 to staff in the Saudi National Guard, including the general connected with the project. They also paid this general GBP 278,000 for a five-year lease of a villa belonging to him, paid up-front.

Beyond these specific sums, Paterson and Foxley noted that in total GPT was paying GBP 26 million a year for “bought-in services” under the SANGCOM deals, up to 16% of the contract’s value.

Declassified MoD documents from the 1970s, discovered by author Nicholas Gilby, show that, for the first SANGCOM contract in 1978, worth GBP 400 million, a total of 15% of the contract’s value (GBP 60 million) was to be paid in “commissions” through various intermediaries. The head of defense sales at the MoD at the time, Lester Suffield, commented in a draft memo that the commissions “although described as ‘technical consultancy’ amount in practice to the exertion of influence to sway decisions in favour of the client.”

The UK Serious Fraud Office traced more than GBP 9 million in payments from GPT to Simec, to Saudi fixers, to Miteb bin Abdullah, the head of the Saudi National Guard, and his associates. Payments were alleged to have been made from Simec to ABTSS, and ultimately to, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, head of the Saudi National Guard. In March 2024, John Mason and Jeffrey Cook were acquitted of wrongdoing in a jury trial, after admitting to the payments. The defence rested on the argument that the payments had been authorized by the Saudi and British governments. Simec director John Mason’s lawyers argued that the arrangement had been laid out by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) official in 1994. In total, the defence alleged that British officials, politicians and diplomats knew about and consented to nearly GBP 60 million worth of bribes to Saudi Arabia since 1978.

In the course of the trial, it was also revealed that, after GPT came under investigation from the Serious Fraud Office in 2011, alternate arrangements were made. Prince Miteb directed the UK Ministry of Defence in 2014 to sign an GBP 8 million contract with the company ABTSS, the company later identified as a conduit for payments to Prince Miteb from GPT to Simec to Prince Miteb. Documents presented in the court suggest government officials were aware that the company was owned by the Fuskos family, a family close to the Saudi Royals since the 1950s. Officials further told the court that by the time the MoD agreed to the deal, Miteb was suspected or rumoured to be benefiting from corruption.

Jeff Cook was convicted on a separate charge for having misused his role an MoD employee seconded to defence contractor Paradigm (owned by Airbus) to commission reports for GBP 700,000 on the SANGCOM project with ME Consultants Ltd, whose principal shareholder was also a director at Simec. Cook received at least 10% of this sum as a kickback, in the form of cash and cars.