Ex-director pleads guilty to bribery

A former director of BBC Worldwide Ltd has admitted to accepting bribes from two men who helped secure contracts from the broadcaster for the production of toys including those based on the BBC children’s programme Teletubbies. Jeffrey Everard Taylor, 42, pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting $339,743 from Daniel Jonathan Berman and Sydney Edels, who acted on behalf of toy suppliers, Hong Kong’s independent Commission Against Corruption said.

Berman, 31, director of supplier Eurasia Management Services Ltd, and Edels, 59, director of the Hong Kong-based EMS Asia Ltd, both pleaded guilty to offering Taylor the money. They received $828,200 from the five toy manufacturers between July, 1999 and October, 2001. Part of the money was directed to Taylor. BBC Worldwide is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC. —PTI