STOCKHOLM — Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA said Saturday that it fired two executives in Russia after they allegedly approved bribe plans to a local power supplier.
IKEA spokeswoman Camilla Meiby said the two — one a Swedish employee and one from Switzerland — were relieved from their duties Friday after documents about the suspected bribes emerged.
"We know there have been bribes," Meiby said, without giving details beyond saying, "We've seen the documents."
She declined to name the power supplier allegedly involved and said IKEA was investigating the matter but has yet to report it to police.
The two executives worked as CEO and chairman of LLC IKEA MOS in St. Petersburg, which commercially uses the name Mega shopping center group, she said.
"We don't think they've done this for the sake of personal gain," she said, without elaborating or saying how much money was allegedly involved.
IKEA Group CEO Mikael Ohlsson said he was "deeply upset and disappointed" about the case. "Corruption is totally unacceptable for IKEA," he said in a statement from the company's headquarters.
IKEA has conducted a high-profile campaign against what it calls rampant corruption in Russia. In July, Per Kaufmann, head of IKEA Russia & CIS, said IKEA would halt all future investments in Russia after it was not allowed to open the Samara mall — almost two years after it was finished — because of bureaucratic barriers posed by local officials.
In August, the company said it would end the freeze because local officials were adhering more closely to the law.
IKEA has more than 260 stores in 25 countries worldwide. It owns 12 Mega shopping centers in Russia, in which IKEA stores are located.
(AP, MT)