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Lawsuit hits MTN for allegedly paying bribes to al-Qaida and the Taliban

The year 2019 may have been a financially good one for Africa's largest mobile operator MTN but it has suffered some image-eroding scandals too.

Lawsuit hits MTN for allegedly paying bribes to al-Qaida and the Taliban

Currently, it has been slapped with a lawsuit in which there are allegations of the Telco having paid protection money to militant Islamist groups in Afghanistan.

A legal complaint filed in a US federal court on Friday on behalf of families of US citizens killed in attacks in Afghanistan has accused MTN of violating US anti-terrorism laws.

The complaint alleges MTN paid bribes to al-Qaida and the Taliban to avoid having to invest in inexpensive security for their transmission towers.

The alleged payments helped finance a Taliban-led insurgency that led to the attacks in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017, the accusations say.

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The alleged bribe money helped to provide "material support to known terrorist organisations," which would be a total breach of the anti-terrorism legislation if proven to be true.

Well, MTN is not alone in this latest predicament; five other companies were also named in the filing.

However, MTN is reported as saying that it conducts its business in a "responsible and compliant manner in all its territories", adding that it is reviewing the allegations to enable it respond appropriately.

MTN is Africa's largest mobile operator and the eighth largest in the world, with more than 240 million subscribers.

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In 2015, the firm was fined more than $5bn (£3.8bn) by the Nigerian authorities for failing to cut off unregistered sim cards - a figure that was reduced to $1.7bn after a long legal dispute and the intervention of South Africa's then-President Jacob Zuma.

In February, a former South African ambassador to Iran was arrested in the capital, Pretoria, on charges that he took a bribe to help MTN win a $31.6bn (£24bn) license to operate in Iran.

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