Airbus' defence arm investigated for alleged bribery

European aerospace giant Airbus confirmed Wednesday that its Airbus Defence and Space unit is being investigated for allegations of bribery involving contracts with Saudi Arabia and Romania.
A company spokesman confirmed a corresponding newspaper report and said that Airbus would "cooperate fully" with the authorities.
Furthermore, Airbus had launched an internal investigation of its own into the allegations, the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the prosecutors' office in the southern German city of Munich said that offices of Airbus Defence and Space had been searched, as well as the flats of a number of employees.
The number of employees involved was in the "low single digits," he said.
The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung had said that investigations concern contracts worth around three billion euros ($3.7 billion) to supply border defence equipment to Saudi Arabia and Romania.
The Munich prosecutor's office is looking into suspect money transfers amounting to several million euros, the report said.
In 2009, Airbus struck a deal with Saudi Arabia to supply surveillance equipment to secure its 9,000-kilometre (5,500-mile) border, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.