Ericsson CEO reveals the company may have paid ISIS for access to transportation routes

We know that the cargo supply chain has been both a conduit for carrying out terror attacks and a means by which to transport and smuggle goods and materials used to fund and commit terror.?The most recent revelation from Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm represents the exploitation of the supply chain route itself as a channel for funneling money to terrorist organizations.??

CEO Borje Ekholm recently acknowledged that the company may have paid off terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq to access key transport routes.?An internal probe first initiated in 2019 revealed ‘serious breaches of compliance rules and the company’s code of business ethics’ involving Ericsson employees, vendors and suppliers that carried out Iraq-based operations between 2011 and 2019. While the company identified ‘unusual expenses dating back to 2018,’ the probe could not ‘determine the final recipients’ of the money.?However, there was ‘evidence of corruption-related misconduct’ relating to the use of alternative transport routes, some of which were controlled by terrorist groups, including ISIS, as a way to avoid Iraqi customs.

It is highly likely that there are similar cases involving bribery and corruption in exchange for access which will come to light in the aftermath of this most recent case, particularly given the competitive supply chain environment and the need to transport goods as quickly and directly as possible.?

That said, we know of at least one other unethical (to say the least) deal made with a known terrorist entity unrelated to the supply chain.?In December 2021, it was reported that an Italian government body will initiate a probe into documents which appear to confirm long-held accusations that Italy made a deal to not interfere with Palestinian terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets, including a 1982 assault on the Great Synagogue of Rome, in exchange for not attacking other Italian interests.?

We must consider the implications of this incident, particularly in high traffic cargo transport regions and channels including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait separating Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, where roughly 6.2 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products are transferred daily toward Europe, the United States and Asia, among other goods.?This channel, among many others throughout the world, could turn into a hub for terrorists looking to fund their operations using monies paid out by supply chain giants to avoid customs or make quicker delivered by accessing alternative routes.?It is also important to consider how quickly a scenario like this could escalation from bribery to more sinister attacks.

It is also important to recognize that by making these deals, companies and even sovereign states are encouraging terrorism and terrorist groups and funding their operations, a move which will later likely come back to hurt them not just in possibly becoming the target of an attack but in the damage to reputation over and above the legal and personal implications for those involved.?We can already see the economic impact that these allegations have had on Ericsson stock prices.

ASERO Worldwide, Ltd. offers significant experience in supply chain security.?To learn more about ASERO and our relevant project experience in this field, please visit our website at www.asero.com.