MTN reviews US terror charge but insists ‘we did nothing wrong’

Faced with a lawsuit over alleged contravention of the United States Anti-Terrorism Act in Afghanistan, South African mobile telecommunications giant MTN yesterday shrugged off allegations of any wrongdoing in the manner in which it conducted its business.

The company stands accused of paying protection money to the Taliban in order to ensure the safety of its infrastructure in the war-torn country.

The suit, referred to as the Gold Star Family Lawsuit, was filed in a Washington DC court on behalf of US military members and their families who were killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.

Commenting on the allegations, MTN confirmed the lawsuit challenge, saying in a statement: “On December 27, 2019, a complaint for violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act was filed in the United States district court for the District of Columbia.

“The complaint alleges that several Western businesses supported the Taliban by making payments to ensure the protection of their infrastructure. The defendants named in the complaint are six different groups, one of which is MTN and certain of its subsidiary companies, including MTN Afghanistan. The implicated companies allegedly made the payments in order to save money on security, as paying off the Taliban was considered cheaper.”

According to a weekend CNN report, MTN and the other implicated companies face charges of “funnelling millions of dollars in payments to the Taliban for protection that funded the group’s attacks on US troops in the region”.

“The firms allegedly used a network of subcontractors and private security groups to transfer cash to Taliban agents and, in some cases, dole out salaries to certain Taliban ‘guards’ between 2006 and 2014, while the group was allying with al-Qaeda and waging a violent campaign against US forces and their allies,” CNN quoted from the legal papers against the company.

MTN said it was reviewing the details of the report and consulting its advisors, but “remains of the view that it conducts its business in a responsible and compliant manner in all its territories and so intends to defend its position where necessary”.

Asked whether the US lawsuit against a South African company might have diplomatic implications, department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele referred The Citizen to the department of trade and industry (DTI) “as it is a commercial issue at this stage”.

DTI spokesperson Sidwell Medupe was not available for comment.

The spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria was also not available to comment on the effect the MTN impasse might have on the trade, commercial and diplomatic relations the country currently enjoys with the US.

MTN is no stranger to commercial hurdles in foreign countries, having faced a hefty fine of $5.2 billion (R73.3 billion) by the Nigerian government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which was later reduced to a $3.2 billion settlement.

This arose out of a complaint about MTN subscribers identification modules (SIM) having improper registration. The compliance audit carried out by the NCC on MTN network revealed 5.2 million unregistered customer lines.

The company also faced the risk last year of not being able to repatriate about R4.6 billion from Iran, had US President Donald Trump persuaded his allies in Europe to reimpose sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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