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  • Hong Kong energy executive sentenced to three years in prison for Chad and Uganda bribes

    Financial Crimes

    According to the DOJ, on March 25 a Hong Kong executive was sentenced in the SDNY to a 36-month prison sentence. He headed up a private Chinese energy company and was sentenced “for his role in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages.”

    He was convicted of money laundering, violating the FCPA, and conspiracy after a week-long trial in December 2018. The DOJ alleged that starting in the fall of 2014, he used his US-based NGO to cover up a scheme in which he offered $2 million in cash to the President of Chad concealed in gift boxes, in exchange for the company receiving oil rights from the government; the President rejected the bribe. In Uganda, the DOJ alleged that he gave $1,000,000 in cash payments to the Foreign Minister of Uganda and the President of Uganda.

    Financial Crimes Anti-Money Laundering FCPA DOJ Bribery Of Interest to Non-US Persons

  • Danish company pays approximately $33 million to resolve bribery allegations

    Financial Crimes

    A Danish company that makes protective coatings used in maritime environments announced on March 4 that it had settled bribery allegations with the Danish State Prosecutor for Serious and International Crime by paying a $33 million fine. The company self-reported what it called “illegal sales practices found in Germany, other countries in Europe, and in Asia” in April 2017.

    Financial Crimes Bribery

  • DOJ charges two more in Venezuelan bribery scheme

    Financial Crimes

    In an indictment unsealed on February 26, the DOJ charged a former sales representative and the president of a U.S.-based company with conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering, and substantive wire fraud, for their alleged roles in “a scheme to corruptly secure business advantages, including contracts and payment on past due invoices, from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company.” The indictment alleges that from approximately 2009 to 2013, the sales representative and the president of the company conspired to bribe three of the energy company officials in exchange for providing advantages to the unnamed company, including through the creation of fictitious invoices from Panamanian shell companies. 

    According to the indictment, in exchange for the bribes the energy company officials allegedly assisted the company in obtaining additional energy company contracts, inside information, and payment on past due invoices. The defendants are also alleged to have received kickbacks in connection with the scheme. In total, the sales representative is alleged to have received over $985,000 and the president of the company over $258,000 in kickback payments. Two of the three officials that the defendants are accused of bribing have pleaded guilty in connection with the case and are pending sentencing.

    Financial Crimes DOJ Anti-Money Laundering Bribery Of Interest to Non-US Persons

  • UK SFO declines to prosecute individuals in British aviation company and British pharmaceutical company corruption investigations

    Financial Crimes

    The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced on February 22 that it was ending two long-running corruption-related investigations – one of a aviation company and the other of a pharmaceutical giant – without bringing charges against any individuals. 

    In 2017, the aviation company paid $650 million to settle an SFO investigation into a government kickbacks scheme. In connection with the resolution of the SFO’s charges, the aviation company admitted to bribing government officials in Russia, India, China, Nigeria, and elsewhere in exchange for contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The aviation company also paid $170 million to resolve related charges brought by the DOJ, with the DOJ later charging five individuals for their alleged participation in the bribery scheme.

    Although the SFO announced in 2014 that the pharmaceutical company was under investigation, the SFO never disclosed the subject matter of that investigation. In its only announcements about the case, the SFO has noted simply that the investigation concerned the company’s “commercial practices.” In 2012, the pharmaceutical company had paid $3 billion in the U.S. to settle charges brought by U.S. prosecutors concerning alleged off-label marketing, and in 2014 was convicted in China of bribing doctors and hospitals to improve sales, but it remains unknown whether the SFO’s investigation related to one of these known issues or something different. 

    The SFO director explained in a public statement that the decision to decline prosecution of any individuals in connection with these investigations was because “there is either insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction, or it is not in the public interest to bring a prosecution in these cases.”

    Financial Crimes UK Serious Fraud Office Anti-Corruption DOJ Bribery Of Interest to Non-US Persons China

  • IT outsourcing company resolves FCPA investigations

    Financial Crimes

    On February 15, an information technology and business process outsourcing company paid $25 million to settle SEC civil charges that it violated the FCPA. The SEC alleged that the company paid $3.6 million in bribes through its construction contractor to senior government officials in India in order to obtain permits needed to build, among other things, a large office campus in Chennai. To resolve the SEC’s allegations, the company paid $19 million in disgorgement and a $6 million penalty.

    The DOJ declined to bring criminal charges against the company, citing, among other factors, the company’s voluntary self-disclosure, comprehensive investigation, full cooperation and remediation, and its preexisting compliance program. The company issued a statement highlighting that the matter did not concern any of the company’s work with clients and did not affect any of the services it provides to clients. 

    On the same day the settlement was announced, two former company executives—the president and chief legal officer—were hit with civil and criminal charges for allegedly authorizing $2 million in bribes and directing the creation of false contractor change orders to mask payment of the bribes. The former executives are charged with violating the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA. Pursuant to its letter agreement with DOJ, the company is required to fully cooperate in the ongoing prosecutions.

    Financial Crimes FCPA SEC DOJ Enforcement Bribery Of Interest to Non-US Persons

  • Hawaiian executive's bribery guilty plea leads to Micronesian official charged with money laundering conspiracy

    Financial Crimes

    On February 11, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed conspiracy to commit money laundering charges against a Micronesian government official alleged to have taken bribes to secure engineering and project management contracts from the government of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The charges follow the recent guilty plea by a Hawaiian executive to a charge of conspiracy to bribe the Micronesian official in violation of the FCPA. 

    According to the DOJ,  a Micronesian citizen was a government official in the FSM Department of Transportation, Communications and Infrastructure who administered FSM’s aviation programs. Between 2006 and 2016, the Hawaiian executive’s Hawaii-based engineering and consulting company allegedly paid around $440,000 in bribes in the form of cash, vehicles, and entertainment to FSM officials, including the citizen, to obtain and retain contracts with the FSM government valued at nearly $8 million. The complaint unsealed on Monday contains specific examples of requests by the citizen to the executive for cash gifts and a 2014 Chevy Silverado. According to the executive’s guilty plea, he fulfilled the citizen’s requests and sent wire transfers and the automobile internationally for the citizen’s personal use.

    Financial Crimes DOJ Anti-Money Laundering Bribery Of Interest to Non-US Persons

  • Former oil-services sales executive pleads guilty in U.K. to bribery charges

    Financial Crimes

    On February 6, the U.K. SFO announced that a former sales executive of an oil-services company had pleaded guilty in the U.K. to 11 counts of bribery regarding payments made in exchange for winning oil-services contracts in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The executive – a British citizen and the former global head of sales for a subsidiary of the company – pleaded guilty to participating in payments of more than $6 million to agents to win contracts worth more than $4 billion in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The SFO’s investigation of the company regarding suspected bribery and money laundering, which was announced in May 2017, is ongoing, but no other officers or employees are currently charged.

    Financial Crimes UK SFO Bribery Anti-Money Laundering

  • Former insurance executives charged with laundering bribes to Barbados Minister of Industry

    Financial Crimes

    On January 28, DOJ announced charges against the former chief executive and a former senior vice president of a Barbados-based insurance company. The indictment alleges that the the company's executives participated in a scheme to launder approximately $36,000 in bribes to the then-Minister of Industry of Barbados in exchange for his assistance in securing government contracts for the company. According to the indictment, the bribes were laundered through a United States bank account in the name of a dental company located in New York. The former Minister of Industry was arrested in August 2018 and the indictment against him referenced, but did not name, his alleged co-conspirators. The superseding indictment against the three co-defendants and another still unnamed former insurance executive was unsealed on January 18, 2019. Prior Scorecard coverage of the arrest and indictment of the former Minister of Industry can be found here.

    The company voluntarily self-disclosed the case to DOJ and received a declination letter from DOJ for its cooperation pursuant to the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. The declination letter required the company to disgorge $93,940.19 in profits received through the conduct at issue. The declination was based, in part, on the company’s termination of all executives and employees involved in the alleged misconduct and in helping DOJ identify the culpable individuals. Prior Scorecard coverage of the declination letter can be found here.

    Financial Crimes DOJ Anti-Money Laundering Bribery FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy Of Interest to Non-US Persons

  • Brazilian electric utilities company reaches settlement of FCPA violations in Brazil

    Financial Crimes

    On December 26, 2018, a Brazilian electric utilities company entered into an administrative order to settle the SEC’s claims that the company violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA and agreed to pay a civil monetary penalty of $2.5 million.

    The company, which is majority-owned by the Brazilian government, is alleged to have – through former officers of its nuclear power generation subsidiary – rigged bids and paid bribes through private construction companies in relation to construction of a nuclear power plant in Brazil. This matter was first announced publicly in October 2016 when the company hired outside counsel to conduct an internal investigation into related conduct.

    In entering into this administrative order, the SEC consider the company’s cooperation efforts, including sharing facts discovered in its internal investigation and producing and translating related documents, as well as its efforts towards remediation, including discipline of involved employees, enhancement of internal accounting controls and compliance functions, and adoption of new anti-corruption policies and procedures.

    Previous coverage can be found here.

    Financial Crimes SEC FCPA Bribery

  • UK court convicts former power company executive

    Financial Crimes

    On December 19, a UK Court found former power company Global Sales Director guilty of conspiracy to corrupt in connection with his role in bribing Lithuanian officials to win lucrative power station contracts for the French power and transportation company. He will be sentenced on December 21.

    The conviction follows the guilty pleas of the company and two other individuals in the UK in connection with the company’s Lithuanian bribery scheme. According to the SFO, the companies paid Lithuanian politicians more than €5 million (~$6.3 million in today’s USD) in bribes to secure the contracts, valued at €240 million (~$304 million in today’s USD). The SFO also has charged the company and former executives for alleged corruption spanning Hungary, India, Poland, and Tunisia.

    In late 2014, the company and various subsidiaries agreed to pay a then-record $772 million fine in connection with FCPA violations spanning numerous countries. For prior FCPA Scorecard coverage of the company, please see here.

    Financial Crimes FCPA Bribery Anti-Corruption

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