By Robert Wall 

LONDON--European plane maker Airbus SE has established a new compliance review group led by outsiders amid allegations of corruption being investigated by British and other fraud watchdogs.

It is the second time in less than five years Airbus has sought outside help to clean up its internal processes after fraud allegations surfaced. Some of the issues that led to the compliance review in 2012 are still under scrutiny, including the company's actions in a more than $1 billion dollar deal to sell Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets to Austria a decade earlier.

"To embed irreproachable behaviors in all our business undertakings sustainably, we must take a hard look at both our systems and our culture," Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said in a statement announcing the latest review.

Austrian officials said Mr. Enders is one of the people it is investigating in its probe, which is examining whether the company overcharged the government for the sale of military planes. Airbus has denied wrongdoing and said it was cooperating with authorities.

The Austrian probe is one of several corruption investigations Airbus is battling. The British Serious Fraud Office has been examining alleged bribery by an Airbus subsidiary in business dealings in Saudi Arabia for several years. Airbus launched a compliance review in 2012 amid concerns over the Austrian deal and the British probe into the actions of its subsidiary in Saudi Arabia. At the time, it said it had tightened its compliance procedures and taken other steps aimed at preventing future slip-ups.

In 2016, Britain's SFO also began investigating Airbus's possible misuse of middlemen in winning plane deals. French officials also are probing the use of third-party intermediaries used during the sale of commercial airliners. Airbus has also said it had hired forensic accountants to help review what happened and has frozen payments to third-party consultants.

The new compliance review panel will include David Gold, who also reviewed compliance proceedings at Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, which was also under review by the SFO, U.S. Department of Justice and Brazilian authorities. Rolls-Royce this year entered deferred prosecution deals with the three and agreed to pay more than $800 million in fines. Noƫlle Lenoir, a former French Minister of European Affairs, and Theo Waigel, an ex-German finance minister also complete the group.

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2017 03:24 ET (07:24 GMT)

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