‘Deniable fiddle’: the MoD, Saudi Arabia and a scandal half a century in the making

The fact that, historically, payments were made to officials as part of arms deals with Saudi Arabia was not disputed by the Serious Fraud Office. Composite: Guardian Design/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The revelation that the Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a firm that would later be accused of being a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi officials is the culmination of a scandal that has been half a century in the making.

The £8m paid from an MoD bank account between 2014 and 2017 was in connection with a large defence deal, Sangcom, first struck in the 1970s.