some were paid the equivalent of hundreds of pounds a month. fss would meet informants in fast food restaurants like this one. they d dole out the cash to workers from rival factories. they d then sign the receipts and someone from bat to witness the payments. informants were paid to report what they saw at work, giving daily updates on production. this matters, because paying bribes in exchange for information like this appears to break uk law. and the emails confirm the payments were approved by local bat managers. bat in south africa, were they aware that you were doing all those things? they sat in most of the management meetings where these things were discussed, and the operational planning was discussed. is there any way that they could have thought that that was just a legitimate practice, that they didn t understand. ? no, no, not at all, not at all. so, they knew it was illegal? correct.
bat was under pressure from falling demand and cheaper competitors. it claimed some of its rivals were avoiding tax. bat turned to fss to recruit an army of spies and informants. we ve obtained thousands of documents that show how they did it. internal reports, emails and invoices. fss registered its informants and gave them code names. they had almost 200 special informants, or sins, on their books. some were paid the equivalent of hundreds of pounds a month. fss would meet informants in fast food restaurants like this one. they d dole out the cash to workers from rival factories.