The longest running and biggest corruption scandal in the UK has come to an abrupt and unsatisfactory end.

BAE Systems has admitted two criminal charges relating to corporate administration and will pay fines totalling £286m.

In return, UK and US authorities will cease their investigations into alleged corruption in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Hungary.

Full coverage can be found from the BBC, The Independent and The Financial Times.

The contracts being investigated were worth up to £45bn; BAE Systems has a £9bn turnover and a £12bn market capitalisation.

Furthermore, the scale of the corruption involved has been estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds and includes the infamous al-Yamamah series of deals.

So, how is £280m considered an appropriate fine which punishes criminal activity?

However, there's more.

The al-Yamamah deal was really between the UK and Saudi Governments and included payments in oil; BAE were just a subcontractor.

It is inconceivable that the alleged corruption occurred without the knowledge of the UK Government.  The Saudi position appears to be “So what? ...(Corruption) has happened since Adam and Eve. It's human nature."

Three years ago the UK Government forced the Serious Fraud Office to drop an investigation into the al-Yamamah deals for public interest reasons.  A year later, Transparency International condemned the UK as “a place where corrupt business is done”.

That BAE Systems was nothing more than a middleman may explain the leniency of the fines imposed.  However it does not excuse its behaviour and many other businesses will read this news knowing that they too will get away with it.

That is not a good result.

^{Picture Credit: Eurofighter Typhoon by davidforster from flickr under Creative Commons No Derivitives License.}