Something else is odd here. Bombardier was awarded this contract in 2013. An arrest was just made now? That seems like a heckuva long time to determine the charge and who to charge.
No, that's actually fairly fast for a white collar crime. These crimes are hidden by nature (not visible like a street mugging) and even when uncovered the complexity of a financial crime may take years to untangle and investigate.
This bribery allegation is only the latest connected with Bombardier Transportation in recent years.
Two years ago South Korean prosecutors alleged that Bombardier execs participated in corrupt practices involving a $3.5 billion contract to build an elevated train system. According to prosecutors, Bombardier execs bribed city officials to severely inflate the projected number of riders, apparently to boost the value of the contract. However, the statute of limitations had expired by the time the bribery came to light.
Bombardier is also linked to a bribery investigation in South Africa. According to CBC and South African media, Bombardier execs paid a Tunisian-based middleman $35 million in "success fees", and at least $5 million was to be further transferred to a political operative. The scandal came to light because apparently the political operative was shortchanged ("no honor among thieves") and began to threaten Bombardier.
In the Netherlands, Bombardier's chief country executive was caught in a corruption scandal after he allegedly bribed a consultant to hand him confidential information regarding the Dutch railway NS Groep N.V. The bribery was only uncovered because the wife of the consultant gossiped about the payment to her friend, who was married to an NS Groep employee.
And now we have the latest allegations from Swedish prosecutors. The authorities raided Bombardier's Swedish offices last fall and apparently found enough evidence in seized emails to implicate several Bombardier employees.