Malaysia Regulators to Investigate Allegations Against AirAsia Group and AirAsia X

A securities regulator in Malaysia said today it will investigate whether AirAsia Group and unit AirAsia X violated securities laws after its executives were accused of receiving bribes from Airbus for buying planes.

According to the UK prosecutors, Airbus has bribed the airline’s executives and covered the payments. The allegations emerged after Airbus completed a $4 billion deal with France, Britain and the United States.

As stated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), during the period between October 2013 and January 2015, Airbus’s parent organization EADS paid $50 million to fund a team that was co-owned by two people characterized as AirAsia Executive 1 and Executive 2.

The SFO claims the public officials were bribed to buy an aircraft from Airbus. AirAsia denied this accusation late on Saturday.

Albar added that executives who take wrongful actions to lead their listed firms to loss can face prison or fines.

The anti-graft agency in Malaysia has conducted a separate investigation into the matter.

The Malaysian low-cost carrier issued a statement on Saturday saying it had not been involved with the UK prosecutors’ investigation of Airbus or provided any details on the matter. The airline denied all allegations. 

AirAsia said it would provide full support and cooperation to the "relevant authorities where required". It currently operates with 274 planes, all of which are Airbuses.

The group said that none of the aircraft purchases were a single individual decision, but rather a unanimous decision of the board arrived at after carefully evaluating technical details, airplane flight performance, and operating economics.