The Secret Bribes of Big Tobacco Panorama

Tonight on Panorama...

we expose corruption at one of Britain's biggest companies.

This is not only a criminal activity,

it is really, totally unacceptable.

The bribery secrets of British American Tobacco

revealed by the man who did their dirty work.

-Bribing?

-Yes.

-Breaking the law?

-Yes.

-And you were happy to do that?

-Yes.

We reveal how BAT's bribes undermined a United Nations

campaign to save lives.

It's using bribery to profit at the cost of people's lives,

simple as that.

We track down the politicians

and civil servants who took the illegal payments.

-You took money from BAT, didn't you? You took 3,000.

-I...

-I don't think so.

-Listen, man, you're now upsetting me.

Mr Durante?

'And we confront those at the top about corruption at BAT.'

Why did you not respond to our e-mails about bribery?

Is that the nature of BAT, sir, that you just put up with bribery?

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BAT is Britain's fifth-biggest company,

and it made £4.5 billion profit last year.

The company is doing well,

says chief executive Nicandro Durante in this glossy corporate video.

We are on course to deliver very,

very good results for shareholders on a constant basis.

BAT is part of a controversial industry, but it does all it can

to portray itself as an ethical, respectable and law-abiding company.

Another promotional video describes BAT's business ethics.

We are committed at BAT to operating to the very,

very highest standards of corporate conduct.

Behaving in a responsible way,

running our business in a responsible manner

all over the world.

But our investigation reveals BAT doesn't always meet these standards.

Tonight, we'll show how its bribery damaged rival businesses,

corrupted national parliaments

and undermined a United Nations campaign to save lives.

This is tobacco country in northern Uganda.

Thousands of farmers make their living from tobacco here.

But some have found a different way to make money from this crop.

We're on our way to meet a very important man.

This is a guy who helps to decide who gets to buy and sell tobacco.

And what we know about the man we're on our way to meet

is he's corrupt.

Dr Kasirivu Atwooki is the big man in these hills.

He's the local MP and sits on an important parliamentary committee.

He doesn't know it yet, but we have evidence he's taken bribes from BAT.

If an MP, a sitting MP, took a bribe, how would you feel about that?

-That's not acceptable.

-You took a bribe, though, didn't you?

-Why should I?

-You took 20,000 from BAT.

-From where?

-In 2012.

-No, no, no. That's not true.

-Are you corrupt?

-I'm not.

But our evidence suggests he is.

Dr Atwooki's parliamentary committee was writing a report on a rival

tobacco company, and BAT wanted to see it.

A confidential document, written later by a BAT security contractor

and seen by Panorama, says BAT agreed to pay the MP.

"To see the report would cost 5,000.

"The payment was done by a third party,

"and we received a copy of the draft report."

But that was just the start.

Atwooki said BAT could amend the report in return for more cash.

"For this to happen, it would cost 20,000."

The contractor said BAT paid the bribe,

the MP changed his report and BAT got what it wanted.

They make it very clear that you approached BAT and said,

"I can show you the first draft of this report for 5,000."

-Did you do that, yes or no?

-No!

Then they say that if you wanted to amend that report,

that would come to 20,000.

-Did that happen, yes or no?

-But...

-Did that happen, yes or no?

It didn't. The committee report is not written by one person.

It is a committee report,

and we read through the report and we agree on it and people sign.

And that's what happens. Very transparent.

SHOT

We know about the bribes because of this man.

SHOT

Paul Hopkins served in the Irish special forces.

He then worked for BAT in Africa for 13 years.

SHOT

He ran security and anti-smuggling operations

but also arranged BAT's bribe payments.

He fell out with the company and was made redundant.

Now he's turned whistle-blower.

I was a commercial hit man.

My job was to ensure that the competition

never got a breathing space.

BAT then knew what they wanted you to do

-and they expected you to get on with it.

-Yes.

-And that included bribing?

-Yes.

-Breaking the law?

-Yes.

-Applying pressure?

-Yes.

-Undermining commercial rivals?

-Yes.

-And you were happy to do that?

-Yes.

Were you surprised by the sort of things that BAT expected you to do?

No. They're quite shocking in this environment, but, as it was

explained to me, in Africa that's the cost of doing business.

The documents Paul Hopkins gave us

show how far BAT was prepared to go to get its own way,

even if it meant undermining a United Nations effort to save lives.

Based in Geneva, the UN's World Health Organization is trying

to reduce the number of deaths caused by tobacco.

180 countries have signed up

to its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC.

The FCTC wants to reduce the demand for tobacco around the world.

They say they're tackling the spread of a habit that kills

six million people a year.

But BAT had a man on the inside.

This is Godefroid Kamwenubusa.

He's one of Burundi's representatives at the FCTC.

And this is an e-mail from BAT

authorising a bribe that was paid to him.

"Call Godefroid. He supported us at INB, so we owe him 3,000."

The INB is part of the Tobacco Control Convention.

And Kamwenubusa was being bribed to support BAT.

'I showed the e-mail to the head of the convention.'

That's BAT paying a representative 3,000. What do you feel about that?

It's a company that is irresponsible...

to say the least.

It's using bribery to profit at the cost of people's lives,

simple as that.

But it gets worse.

BAT also bribed this man, a former Rwandan FCTC representative,

Bonaventure Nzeyimana.

This bank transfer shows the 20,000 bribe being paid.

Dr Nzeyimana admitted getting the money but said

it had nothing to do with tobacco or BAT.

And an FCTC representative from the Comoros Islands,

Chaibou Bedja Abdou, was paid 3,000,

though he told us he'd never received any money from BAT.

So three people involved with the UN's anti-tobacco campaign

all being bribed by BAT.

What would you like to see happen to BAT as a result of what we've

shown you?

Oh, I think BAT should be investigated by the Government

and should be just punished accordingly.

BAT told us:

But Panorama has obtained papers in which BAT describes

the payments to the three officials linked to the

tobacco convention as "unlawful bribes".

So in these previously unpublished documents,

the company admits they WERE illegal payments.

This is Mastermind Tobacco in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

It's one of BAT's main rivals in East Africa...

..and BAT paid bribes to discover its secrets.

There are all the, er...

..confidential documents we...

..procured...

-..from Mastermind.

-So this, all of this, is the fruits of bribery?

Yeah, information sources on the board of Mastermind.

-How much money's worth of black ops is here?

-Oh...

To cover you, a couple of hundred thousand pounds?

Minutes of the marketing meeting. This would be the most useful.

I got to see it usually 12 or 14 hours after it happened.

But if you hadn't paid any money,

how many files would we have in front of us?

-Oh, none.

-None?

-So this is what you get when you pay the money.

-Yeah.

Paul also arranged bribes to get public officials to hand over

details of Mastermind's tax affairs.

Did you ever think, "How did I end up doing this?

"I was a special-forces guy, a good guy, and now I'm just corrupt,

-"I'm bribing people"?

-BAT is bribing people, and I'm facilitating it.

We designed this and built this here.

'We showed the owner of Mastermind the evidence that BAT was waging

'an illegal campaign against his company.'

How do you feel about what I've shown you?

It's terrible for an organisation that claims to be a civilised

organisation to be involved in activities of this nature.

It's wrong, it's unjust and it's evil.

On their website, BAT make great play of the fact

that they are an ethical company and they do things by the rules.

-What do you make of that?

-That's PR.

-So BAT managers knew you were bribing people?

-Yes.

And Paul has evidence.

This was his boss, Gary Fagan,

BAT's area director for East and Central Africa.

Paul secretly recorded a conversation with him.

They discussed the bribes paid to tax officials

at the Kenya Revenue Authority, or KRA.

Fagan seems to know about the bribes

and he certainly doesn't tell Paul to stop.

It is illegal for British companies to pay bribes

anywhere in the world.

They can face unlimited fines if they don't take steps to prevent bribery.

This is not only criminal activity, it is really totally unacceptable.

What they are doing is they are undermining

a system of governance that operates.

Gary Fagan denies that he authorised or sanctioned

the payments of bribes.

But Paul also secretly recorded a BAT lawyer.

Naushad Ramoly.

Shortly before Paul leaves the company, Ramoly agrees

they should make final bribe payments to informants at the tax authority,

who they call the KRA, and Mastermind's board.

Naushad Ramoly says he has never been involved

in illegal activities or bribes,

and he reported the whistle-blower Paul Hopkins

to senior BAT management.

The whistle-blower isn't the only former employee

who says BAT paid bribes.

I'm in Uganda for the court case of this former BAT lobbyist.

Soloman Muyita says BAT managers told him to give cash to 50 people.

BAT fired him. They say he's lying.

He's suing them for wrongful dismissal.

In court, BAT disputed Muyita's claims.

But documents submitted to court

suggest BAT did make illegal payments.

They show BAT paid MPs here in Uganda's Parliament

to undermine a proposed anti-tobacco law.

The bill recommended a tightening of the laws surrounding tobacco,

so strict controls on where people could smoke,

new controls on the way cigarettes could be marketed.

Restrictions of the displays of cigarettes in shops.

It is safe to say that this was not a Bill that BAT liked.

One of the MPs who proposed the anti-tobacco bill was David Bahati.

The intention and the purpose of the bill

is to protect the wellbeing and health of Ugandans.

But the court documents allege Bahati

received thousands of dollars from BAT,

and that he was recruited by BAT Uganda to infiltrate,

influence and spy on the cohort of anti-tobacco activists.

Minutes of a meeting between BAT and the MP

say he supported having most of our views

accommodated in the proposed tobacco law.

David Bahati didn't respond to any of our questions,

but just to be clear,

an MP who is the poster boy for the anti-tobacco lobby

was being secretly bribed by BAT.

What do you make of that?

If they are being paid specifically in order to amend legislation,

you've got a clear breach of duty.

And if it's a clear breach of duty, the payment is a bribe.

BAT told Panorama:

The problem for BAT is the evidence of illegal behaviour keeps coming.

Remember the bribes paid to undermine the UN Convention on Tobacco Control.

Well, they were arranged by this woman,

Julie Adell-Owino, a BAT lobbyist.

We've got the e-mails Owino sent when she was arranging the payments.

They are extraordinary, the whole corrupt practice is laid bare.

Take the corrupt payment to the Burundi official

Godefroid Kamwenubusa.

The cash wasn't just for his work undermining the UN.

Julie Adell-Owino wanted something else for BAT's money.

We owe him 3,000 but this is also an exchange

for the draft TCB that the Minister has.

TCB stands for Tobacco Control Bill.

One e-mail says that Kamwenubusa could accommodate any amendments

before the President signs.

It's another attempt by BAT to undermine an anti-smoking law.

So what does Dr Kamwenubusa say about his bribe?

-Did you take 3,000 from BAT?

-No, no.

I think you did. So I'm going to go through the paperwork with you.

I think you're not telling me the truth.

So if you look at this e-mail here, sir.

This is an e-mail that talks about you.

It's from somebody inside BAT, the lobbying group.

If you read it, sir, it says, "We owe him 3,000,

"but this is also an exchange for the draft Tobacco Control Bill."

It talks about you, sir. It talks about the money that they paid you.

You took money from BAT, didn't you?

3,000?

I can give you more paperwork, sir, it all refers to you.

This is another internal document from BAT which refers to you.

It says, "The guy can accommodate any amendments

"before the president signs."

Sir, this is your chance to be honest. This is your chance.

I know you took the bribes.

Then there's the case of Moses Wetangula,

Kenya's former Minister of Trade.

He wanted a flight to London for his wife.

Julie Adell-Owino was happy to pay for it.

We've agreed to get a ticket for his wife.

Find out how much the business class ticket will cost

and buy it, paying by cash.

The transaction needed to be...

Paperless, no receipts, if any, in his name.

Julie Adell-Owino categorically denied involvement in bribery,

and said BAT was mistaken when it admitted

that the payments were bribes.

So what does the former minister say?

The reason we wanted to talk to you is it's been suggested

that you have been corrupt and that you have taken things from BAT.

-Who, me?

-This ticket, it was to be paid for in cash

-and given to your bodyguard...

-Yes.

And there would be no paper trail.

-Oh, my God.

-Why would that happen?

First of all, I'm embarrassed to hear that, I'm upset to hear that,

and I will take action against anybody

who is brewing such a crude rumour against me.

It looks like corruption, doesn't it? It looks like corruption.

Listen, man, you are now upsetting me,

because I did not receive any ticket or any money.

-I don't want to offend you.

-You are offending me.

Sometimes I accidentally offend because I'm putting allegations, sir.

They're based on evidence. These are not things that I've made up.

BAT have admitted that this counts as illegal bribery.

I am shocked to hear this

and I reserve the right to take legal action.

But it looks like it's true, so what would you say to our viewers?

It seems to be true.

Let me repeat this again.

I have never had the links to BAT.

But the evidence suggests politicians and civil servants were paid bribes.

They broke the law but it is BAT that faces the most serious questions.

And not just from the UK authorities.

The fines could be huge, especially in the US.

The US will take it very seriously indeed.

Every single suggestion of bribery - bribe scandal, if you like -

that affects a European company has automatically triggered

an inquiry by the Department of Justice in the US.

We first asked BAT about the bribery allegations three months ago.

We've sent 16 e-mails to chief Executive Nicandro Durante,

but he hasn't answered any of our questions

about the bribe payments we uncovered.

Mr Durante?

I caught up with him as his chauffeur dropped him off

at BAT's London headquarters.

Sir, can I ask you a quick question? I'm from Panorama.

Why did you not respond to our e-mails about bribery?

Is that the nature of BAT, sir, that you just put up with bribery?

Sir, could you come out and give us a quick answer to the questions?

What should we make of your company? One question, sir.

What should our viewers make of BAT?

It's not terribly impressive, sir.

We've been writing to you for months, sir,

why don't you just give us a response?

No response.

BAT later told us:

And what about the whistle-blower, Paul Hopkins?

Well, this week, he plans to meet with investigators

from the Serious Fraud Office in the UK.

Britain's fifth biggest company will have to explain

why its staff broke the law for such a long time

in so many countries.