The Airbus Bribery Case Study

In the UK, it would have to be shown that the senior officer consented or connived to the committing of the bribery offence. This
also applies only to the general bribery offences and bribing a foreign official, and does not apply to the section 7 Bribery Act
corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery.
In Malaysia however, the corporate liability provision is graver. Where an offence is committed by the commercial organisation,
it is then already deemed that the senior officer (i.e. director, controller, officer, concerned in the management of the company’s
affairs) has also committed the offence. The burden then reverses on the senior officer to have to show that the offence was
committed without his consent or connivance, and that he exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.
If it occurred to a Malaysian company, the facts of the Airbus case would have exposed the directors and senior management to a
grave risk of personal liability under Malaysia’s corporate liability provision.