◆Part 1: The Programme
The SANGCOM programme started in 1978. Britain agreed to equip the Saudi Arabian National Guard with military communications systems. Radios, satellite equipment, fibre optics, training, the works. It was a government to government arrangement and the value kept climbing until it ran into the billions.
A British company called GPT Special Project Management became the prime contractor. GPT existed almost entirely for this one programme. The Ministry of Defence oversaw it. On the surface it looked like ordinary defence cooperation.
It wasn't.
◆Part 2: Bought In Services
GPT paid large sums under a line item labelled "bought in services." The money went to two Cayman Islands companies, Simec and Duranton. There was never any solid evidence those companies delivered work that justified the amounts. The Serious Fraud Office later followed more than 9.7 million pounds from GPT through these intermediaries to Saudi officials and fixers. Prince Miteb bin Abdullah was among the recipients. Other senior National Guard figures took money too. Cars were handed over. A villa belonging to a Saudi general was leased with a big upfront payment. At times the "bought in services" channel was absorbing as much as 16 percent of the contract value. GPT treated it as just another cost of the job.
◆Part 3: Paterson and Foxley
Michael Paterson was GPT's financial controller between 2007 and 2010. He noticed the payments early and started keeping records. He raised it inside the company. Nothing much moved. In 2010 Ian Foxley arrived as Programme Director. Foxley was a retired lieutenant colonel, Royal Corps of Signals, staff trained, experienced in procurement. Paterson showed him the paperwork. Foxley went through the emails and the authorisations and the spreadsheets. The pattern was clear enough.
He took the concerns to the Ministry of Defence people running SANGCOM in Riyadh. He expected them to do something. Instead the information went straight back to GPT.
Jeffrey Cook, the managing director, called Foxley in. He asked whether Foxley had been passing documents to the Ministry. Foxley said yes. Cook accused him of theft and threatened to have him arrested and locked up in Saudi Arabia. Foxley decided he was not safe. Within a day he was on a night flight to London with copies of the evidence. He reported it to the Ministry of Defence in Britain, to Airbus compliance, and to the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO opened a formal investigation in 2012.
◆Part 4: The Guilty Plea
In April 2021 GPT pleaded guilty to corruption. The company admitted making corrupt payments to Saudi officials between late 2008 and the end of 2010 to keep the SANGCOM contracts. The fine and confiscation came to about 30 million pounds. Mr Justice Bryan, sentencing the company, said the UK government had been substantially involved in the historic arrangements that produced the offending. Knowledge and at least tacit approval inside government continued into the period covered by the charges. The requirement for the prime contractor to use these intermediary channels had been long established. Senior Saudi figures insisted on it. Senior British figures knew.
◆Part 5: Cook and Mason
Cook and John Mason, an accountant connected to the intermediary companies, were charged with the same offences. Both accepted the payments had been made. Their defence was that the British and Saudi governments had authorised them. The first trial fell apart after the Ministry of Defence failed to disclose material. A second trial ran at Southwark in late 2023 and early 2024. Foxley gave evidence about finding the documents, the confrontation, and leaving Riyadh. On 6 March 2024 the jury acquitted both men of the corruption counts.
Cook was convicted of something else. While still at the Ministry of Defence between 2004 and 2008 he had taken commissions and gifts linked to contracts, cash and two cars, more than 70,000 pounds in total. The jury found him guilty of misconduct in public office. He got 30 months. Mason walked free on every charge.
◆Part 6: The Record
The Statement of Facts agreed between the SFO and GPT records that the UK government knew about the historic arrangements and that the knowledge continued. Bryan's sentencing remarks confirmed government involvement in the structure that generated the payments. Declassified Ministry of Defence papers from the 1970s show commissions and intermediary arrangements were built into SANGCOM from the beginning. This was not a private company scam that a few executives invented. It was a known cost of the programme.
No minister has been charged. No senior civil servant has been charged over the SANGCOM payments. The company pleaded. The individuals were largely cleared once the jury heard about government knowledge. Foxley has civil claims against the Ministry and others, saying he was exposed after he raised concerns through official channels. Those cases are still going. Calls for a proper independent inquiry have not produced one.
The documents show the money moved. The court record shows the knowledge existed. The results show how little accountability followed.