GlaxoSmithKline fined $490m by China for bribery

China has fined UK pharmaceutical firm, GlaxoSmithKline $ 490 million after a court found it guilty of bribery.

The record penalty follows allegations that the drug giant paid out bribes to doctors and hospitals in order to have their products promoted.

The court gave GSK's former head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly, a suspended three-year prison sentence and he is set to be deported.

Other GSK executives have also been given suspended jail sentences.

The guilty verdict was delivered after a one-day trial at a court in Changsha.

Chinese authorities first announced they were investigating GSK in July last year, in what has become the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreign firm in years. 

BBC