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Foreign Corrupt Practices Act & Anti-Corruption

Brazil Charges Embraer Executives with Bribery

Brazil Embraer Dominican Republic

According to media reports, the Brazilian government has filed a criminal complaint against eight Embraer SA executives, alleging bribery of foreign officials.  This is one of the first criminal prosecutions that Brazil has undertaken against its citizens for foreign bribery.  The complaint alleged that Embraer sales executives agreed to pay a $3.5 million bribe to a retired Dominican Air Force colonel and then-director of special projects for the Dominican Republic’s armed forces, who – in exchange – influenced legislators to approve a $92 million contract and financing agreement for aircraft.  The deal provided the Dominican Republic with eight Embraer Super Tucanos, which is an attack support aircraft.  The complaint indicated that part of the bribe was to be paid to a Dominican senator, but the senator was not named in the complaint.  The executives attempted to make the payments through three shell companies, but Embraer’s compliance department blocked the full transfer in 2009.  The rest of the bribe payments were concealed by booking them as consulting fees to a middleman in a separate deal with Jordan that never happened.  The complaint charges the Embraer executives with corruption in international transactions, which carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, and money laundering. According to The Wall Street Journal, who reviewed the complaint that was filed under seal, the U.S. DOJ and the U.S. SEC assisted the Brazilian prosecutors by providing evidence from the U.S. agencies’ investigations.  In 2011, Embraer disclosed that it was under investigation in the United States for potential violations of the FCPA, and those investigations are ongoing.