TeliaSonera has sacked CFO Per-Arne Blomquist and three senior employees as the Swedish telco reviews deals made in Eurasia following controversy in Uzbekistan. Chairman Marie Ehrling said today the individuals will leave immediately as they no longer…
TeliaSonera has sacked CFO Per-Arne Blomquist and three senior employees as the Swedish telco reviews deals made in Eurasia following controversy in Uzbekistan.
Chairman Marie Ehrling said today the individuals will leave immediately as they no longer had the trust of the board.
“It is not the board’s task to assess the legal aspects, but we have decided to hand over the material from the Norton Rose Fulbright review to the prosecutor’s office as part of our continuous dialogue,” she said.
Christian Luiga, head of the group’s CEO office, has assumed the CFO position on an acting basis.
Tero Kivisaari, a former head of the group’s Eurasia region, is one of the other three employees to leave the company after losing his management position in October.
The ethics review, which is ongoing, was launched earlier this year after an internal investigation criticised a lack of due diligence over a 2007 3G licence in Uzbekistan. Although Swedish law firm Mannheimer Swartling found nothing to support allegations that the telco committed bribery or participated in money laundering, it said the company should have carried out more in-depth analysis.
The results of that probe prompted a management reshuffle that included the resignation of CEO Lars Nyberg, with Blomquist briefly filling in the role as it searched for a successor.
Commenting on the latest departures, new CEO Johan Dennelind said: “Together with the board I have come to the conclusion that the way some transactions in the past were managed does not live up to the high standards of business ethics and transparency that TeliaSonera wants to stand for. Based on Norton Rose Fulbright’s findings I am taking necessary actions.”
In a call with analysts, Dennelind also revealed the departures were a result of ethical issues in Eurasia outside of Uzbekistan.
As well as Uzbekistan, TeliaSonera’s Eurasian portfolio includes Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova and Nepal.
