British American Tobacco suffers after BBC bribery accusations

British American Tobacco has been accused of bribing politicians and civil servants in a BBC television documentary, which could leave it open to prosecution and major fines.

The Panorama investigation alleged that the company bribed government officials in a number of East African countries.

This was revealed by a whistleblower at the FTSE 100 company, Paul Hopkins, who shared hundreds of secret documents, including emails that reveal BAT made illegal payments to two members and one former member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) campaign that is aimed at cutting deaths from smoking.

BAT was also shown to have paid bribes to undermine anti-smoking legislation.

Under the Bribery Act, UK firms can be prosecuted for bribery overseas and, the BBC suggested, BAT could even be taken to court in the US where it would face huge fines.

The BBC said Hopkins planned to meet with investigators from the UK's Serious Fraud Office this week.

BAT said the programme was a "false picture" of how the company operated.

In a statement it said any company could fall victim to an employee acting inappropriately but added that any alleged breach of its high standards would be "swiftly investigated".

"Any proven transgression will lead to appropriate disciplinary action. Our accusers in this programme left us in acrimonious circumstances and have a vendetta against us, clearly demonstrated by the false picture they present of how we do business."

Shares in BAT lost their earlier gains on Monday and just before the close were down 0.6% at 3,876.5p.