TWO senior BAE Systems executives have been detained by US authorities probing corruption allegations.
The defence firm's chief executive, Mike Turner, and a senior colleague are understood to have been held as they arrived in America on business last week.
The pair were released after being questioned and having documents and personal electronic e
quipment – including laptops and Blackberries – examined.
The US Department of Justice acted at Houston airport in Texas, as part of its investigation into a £43bn arms deal between BAE and Saudi Arabia.
The company has been accused of making illegal payments to key officials from the regime, although it has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
There was outrage in December 2006 when the British Government announced that the Serious Fraud Office was dropping its probe into the al-Yamamah deal.
The then Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, and Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted continuing would have caused "serious damage" to UK-Saudi relations and put national security at risk.
However, the High Court has since ruled that the SFO acted unlawfully in abandoning the case, while the American authorities have pressed ahead.
Several US-based BAE executives are thought to have had their homes raided at around the same time Turner and his unnamed colleague were detained.
BAE Systems Inc, a subsidiary of UK-based parent BAE Systems plc, has some 43,000 employees in the US.
British officials in Washington were reportedly informed of the incident on Monday when Turner alerted military contacts at the Embassy.
One told a Sunday newspaper: "It was pretty heavy-handed. They had their laptops taken away and their documents photocopied."
A BAE spokesman said: "BAE Systems notes press coverage concerning recent developments in connection with the Department of Justice investigation which commenced in June 2007.
"As the company has already announced, the investigation is ongoing and any request for information relating to it should be directed to the DoJ."
Earlier this month, BAE was told some future contracts may have to be sacrificed if it wants to repair its tarnished reputation.
The full article contains 345 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
