Ericsson AB said it expects to pay $1 billion to resolveinvestigations by U.S. authorities into business ethics breaches insix countries, including China, in one of the costliest corruptioncases on record.

The Sweden-based telecommunications equipment maker said in astatement Thursday it has made a provision of 12 billion kronor($1.2 billion) to cover the penalty, and this will dentthird-quarter earnings. Ericsson said it can't comment on detailsof the process with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) and Department of Justice.

Ericsson has cooperated with investigators since 2013, when theSEC began its probe into possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act(FCPA) violations. It hasn't disclosed details of the ethicsbreaches under investigation, though it said at the time that theprobe related to a payment system used to win contracts in the1990s. It said Thursday that the investigation covers a periodending in the first quarter of 2017 and involves FCPA breaches inChina, Djibouti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.