How a Corruption-Sanctioned Company Got a $480M Contract to Build Chile's National ID System — And Broke It

IDEMIA, a French identity technology company formed from the merger of two corruption-sanctioned firms (Oberthur Technologies and Safran/Morpho), won a $480M contract to build Chile's national ID system, which crashed on its first day in December 2024. The company has a history of bribery convictions across Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Angola, paying approximately €24 million in fines with no executives imprisoned. Chile's tender process itself was marred by conflicts of interest, with three Registro Civil directors cycling through the role amid contract breaches and fines against IDEMIA.