1 May 2026
Today the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Ultra Electronics Holdings Limited (Ultra Electronics) entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), with the defence and security company paying almost £15 million to resolve a long-running bribery probe. This penalty includes a £10 million penalty plus £4.8 million to cover the SFO’s costs.
This DPA is a welcome development – it is the SFO’s first DPA for five years, and its first successful corporate bribery enforcement action since Glencore’s record-breaking £276 million penalty in 2022. The SFO will also be relieved to land a significant corporate bribery fine after the collapse of a major bribery investigation in February 2026.
The SFO launched its investigation into Ultra Electronics in 2018 after the British defence company self-reported suspected corruption in Algeria. The probe subsequently expanded to Oman in late 2022 before the agency announced in 2024 that it was throwing the net globally to look at suspected corruption in any country where the company operated.
In the midst of the SFO’s investigation, the UK government approved a takeover of the London-listed Ultra Electronics by aerospace giant Cobham, in a £2.6 billion deal backed by US private equity firm Advent International. Today’s DPA comes as Advent is reportedly exploring a £4 billion divestment of Ultra Maritime, its naval defence subsidiary which specialises in anti-submarine warfare technologies in high demand for the Royal Navy and US Navy.
The corporate wrongdoing covered by the DPA concerns the operations of Ultra Electronics in Algeria and Oman relating to its supply of specialist IT solutions to airports and airlines. This includes the company’s failure to prevent bribery in a £200 million contract secured through the use of agents with the Omani Ministry of Transport and Communications. It follows a CAD $7.8 million remediation agreement negotiated by one of its subsidiaries with Canadian authorities in 2023 relating to the bribery of public officials in the Philippines.
These failures to prevent bribery in the global operations of a London-listed defence company expose the vulnerability of the defence industry at a time of massive investment in defence spending. The SFO’s enforcement action sends a critical message that defence companies must not lower their standards on engaging in bribery in high-risk jurisdictions. Corruption and bribery in defence spending hollow out defence capabilities, exacerbate security risks and lead to huge diversion of public money.
Yet ultimately this £10 million penalty, plus the £4.8 million the company will pay to cover the costs of the SFO’s long-running investigation, will do little to deter companies in the defence sector who turn over millions every day. Without robust accountability of individuals implicated in the allegations, it is too easy for multinational corporations to factor small financial penalties into the cost of doing business.
While certain individuals made a late bid to keep their names out of the public domain, the court rejected this application for anonymity. There must be full transparency about those implicated to ensure that this enforcement action has full deterrent effect and enables the public to understand and scrutinise how the DPA is holding the company to account for serious wrongdoing.
Dr Helen Taylor, Deputy Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said:
“This DPA is a welcome deal to end a drought of corporate bribery successes for the SFO. Coming at a time of growing geopolitical instability and rising defence spending, this enforcement action sends an important signal to those in the defence industry tempted to cut corners to secure lucrative public contracts. But with a financial penalty that represents just a fraction of the company’s profits, there is a serious risk that multinational defence giants will simply factor such penalties into the cost of doing business in a high-risk, high-reward sector.”
