The Paris meeting in mid-January was a tense affair. In an oak-paneled conference room of an elegant mansion that once belonged to the Rothschild family, government representatives from more than 30 countries listened skeptically as British officials explained why they had dropped a high-profile bribery investigation into $80 billion in British contracts to supply military aircraft and other equipment to Saudi Arabia.
At the closed session, according to several people familiar with the proceedings, the British officials sketched out details of the case: the Serious Fraud Office ( sfo ) had uncovered various strands of alleged corruption...