Ericsson escaped the shackles of US oversight as a compliance monitoring period imposed as part of a settlement of historic bribery and irregular bookkeeping charges ended, concluding a five-year process during which it strengthened internal processes.

The vendor stated the work of the independent compliance monitor appointed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) ended on schedule yesterday (2 June), but added it would cooperate with ongoing investigations into its past conduct.

“This is an important milestone in our journey to improve our organisation,” Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said.

The Ericsson chief pointed to the implementation of “important compliance requirements and processes” over the past four years and said its “commitment to integrity is rock solid”, with zero tolerance of “corruption, fraud or other misconduct”.

Ericsson explained the independent monitor had spent the past four years thoroughly poking around its global anti-corruption compliance programme and internal controls.

It noted a US judge certified the programme had met all DoJ requirements in late March.

Ericsson agreed to the compliance monitoring along with penalties totalling $1.1 billion to settle investigations into its historic business practices in 2019. The deal involved a deferred prosecution and the dismissal of charges after a set period.

A plea deal agreed in March 2023 following “non-criminal breaches” of its original agreement is also now concluded.

The vendor continued to streamline its internal conformity processes, adding supervision of an investigations team to the role of its chief compliance officer when it appointed Rebecca Rohr to the position in March.