The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has widened its investigation into corruption allegations at UK defence giant BAE Systems.
Together with Ministry of Defence Police, the SFO raided three business addresses and a home earlier this week.
The SFO said the raids were not related to existing inquiries into BAE defence contracts in Romania and Saudi Arabia
UK arms manufacturer BAE has paid over £1m to front companies for the Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, documents obtained by the Guardian show.
Three companies linked to Gen Pinochet were getting money from the UK defence giant as late as June last year.
The documents show that between December 1997 and October 2004 BAE paid $1,998,871 (£1
BAE Systems believes it is not the target of an inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office into false accounting in connection with defence contracts.
In a statement, BAE also said that it may itself have been on the receiving end of illegal activities.
“There is a possibility that BAE Systems may itself have been the victim of a fraud,” the company said