The decision of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to drop its pursuit of the arms giant BAE Systems has outraged campaigners. The SFO reached a deal to accept £30 million from BAE and an admission of criminal guilt in relation to accounting irregularities.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and the anti-corruption NGO The Corner House said that they were ‘shocked and angered’ by the decision. They argue that the payout is a tiny sum in proportion to BAE’s turnover and that the decision lets BAE ‘off the hook’ by keeping their arms deals out of examination in court.

CAAT spokesperson Kaye Stearman said, ‘Quakers have played a very important role in working to expose BAE. We are confident that they will make known their opposition to the company’s latest attempt to evade justice’.

As it is unclear how developments will unfold, she encouraged Friends to check the CAAT website for the latest news, as well as signing CAAT’s online statement criticising the decision.

Friends have long campaigned against BAE, particularly over arms sales to despotic regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. The company is facing allegations of corruption in five continents and continues to be accused of undemocratic influence over government.

BAE’s chair Dick Olver insisted the issue is now ‘very much in the past’ and said that BAE would be a ‘transparent, modern, clean company’.

But Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House said, ‘Far from drawing a line under the allegations, the announcement simply raises far more questions’.

The SFO has been investigating arms deals with Tanzania, South Africa, Romania and the Czech Republic. BAE are accused of bribing public officials to spend public money on their weapons. An inquiry into BAE’s arms deals with Saudi Arabia was dropped in 2006 after Tony Blair’s government persuaded the SFO to abandon their investigation.

In addition to their arrangement with the SFO, BAE has admitted to criminal charges of misleading the US Department of Justice. They will pay them £250 million.

No BAE director or official has taken personal responsibility or resigned over the issue. BAE’s share price rose by just over two per cent when the settlement was announced, suggesting that investors thought the company had got off lightly.

Andrew Feinstein, a former MP in South Africa who has led the campaign to examine BAE’s deals with the country, said that the settlement gave the impression that large corporations ‘are able to pay their way out of trouble’.