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OECD study finds that government officials punished in only one-fifth of bribery cases
On December 11, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a study examining the consequences faced by public officials who allegedly accepted bribes. The study analyzed 55 foreign-bribery cases concluded between 2008 and 2013 in which companies based in OECD countries had been sanctioned for bribery. It found that government officials were criminally sanctioned in only one-fifth of the 55 cases studied. An additional 11 actions were still pending at either the investigative or prosecutorial stages. The study also found that none of the countries in which bribes were paid, the demand-side countries, detected that their public officials demanded a bribe. Instead, the study found that the “media plays a major role in international information flow.”
Former officer of Venezuela oil company pleads guilty to obstruction
On December 10, a former procurement officer of a Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing an investigation into bribes paid by the owner of U.S.-based companies to Venezuelan government officials in exchange for securing additional business with the company and payment priority on outstanding issues. The former procurement officer, who previously worked for the company in Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
The charge stems from a guilty plea he entered on December 10, 2015, to one count of conspiracy to launder money and one count of making false statements on his federal income tax return. Under the terms of a plea agreement in that case, he agreed to cooperate with the investigation by being interviewed by the United States, and to providing “truthful, complete and accurate information” to government agents and attorneys. In the latest plea, though, he admitted that after his earlier plea, he concealed facts about bribes paid to the company by a target of the investigation, referred to as Co-Conspirator 1 in the indictment. Additionally, he informed Co-Conspirator 1 that U.S. government authorities were investigating Co-Conspirator 1, and provided Co-Conspirator 1 with information about the investigation, including the topics discussed in his meetings with the government. Consequently, Co-Conspirator 1 destroyed evidence and attempted to flee the country in July 2018. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 19, 2019.
SEC settles with Texas offshore drilling company for violations of FCPA internal controls provision
On November 19, the SEC announced a settlement with a Texas offshore drilling company based on the improper activities of the company’s predecessor in connection with a Brazilian oil company bribery scheme. The Administrative Order found that the offshore drilling company had “failed to devise a system of internal accounting controls with regard to [its] transactions with [its] former outside director, largest shareholder, and only supplier of drilling assets . . . and failed to properly implement internal accounting controls related to its use of third-party marketing agents,” noting the company’s “ineffective anticorruption compliance program.” According to the Order, these failures permitted payments that “created a risk that [it] was providing or reimbursing funds that [a director] intended to use to make improper payments to" the Brazilian company at the center of a massive FCPA scheme.
The settlement with the SEC concludes the company’s involvement in the Brazilian company's investigations. According to the drilling company, they received a cooperation letter from the DOJ last year confirming the company’s full cooperation in the Brazilian company's investigation, and that the DOJ would not move forward with any actions against the drilling company.
Further coverage of the Brazilian oil company matter is available here.
Co-conspirators sentenced in Venezuelan bribery scheme involving Venezuelan TV mogul
Two co-conspirators of a billionaire news network owner were sentenced this week as part of the DOJ’s recently unsealed prosecution of a bribery scheme involving over $1 billion paid in bribes to members of the Venezuelan government. According to the DOJ, the owner was indicted under seal in August for conspiracy to violate the FCPA, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and nine counts of money laundering. Two co-conspirators, Florida resident and former Venezuelan National Treasurer, and Chicago resident and former owner of a Dominican Republic bank, each pleaded guilty under seal to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and were sentenced in federal court earlier this week.
According to the owner’s indictment, he allegedly bribed members of the Venezuelan government—including former Venezuelan National Treasurer—in exchange for the right to handle the government’s foreign currency exchange transactions, and then acquired a bank in order to launder the bribe money and other illicit proceeds. To do so, the owner allegedly moved money from Switzerland to accounts in Florida and New York and used it to purchase luxury items such as “jets, a yacht, multiple champion horses, and numerous high-end watches.”
In December 2017, the former Venezuelan National Treasurer pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, admitting to taking bribes in exchange for helping his co-conspirators—including the owner—by choosing them to conduct currency exchanges at favorable rates to the Venezuelan government. As part of his plea, the former Venezuelan National Treasurer agreed to cooperate and pay a forfeiture money judgment of $1 billion through the forfeiture of “real estate, vehicles, horses, watches, aircraft, and bank accounts.” On November 27, 2018, U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Robin L. Rosenberg sentenced the former Venezuelan National Treasurer to 10 years in prison, the maximum under his plea deal.
In March 2018, Chicago resident and former owner of a Dominican Republic bank took a similar plea deal, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, admitting to helping the owner and others acquire and then launder money through the bank. On November 29, 2018, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
The Miami Herald has also reported that the owner's personal banker was sentenced last month for his role in another money laundering scheme involving a Venezuelan state-owned oil company. Coverage of the company's prosecutions is available here.
U.S. announces charges and guilty plea stemming from Malaysian development fund scheme
The DOJ unsealed two indictments and a guilty plea related to the sprawling Malaysian development fund fraud on November 1 in the Eastern District of New York. A Malaysian financier and a former banker were charged with conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from the investment development fund, and conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. The former banker was also charged with conspiring to violate the FCPA by circumventing the internal accounting controls of a U.S. financial institution, which underwrote $6 billion in bonds issued by the fund. He was a managing director at the bank. Another former banker at the same financial institution, pleaded guilty to the same charges. He has been ordered to forfeit $43.7 million.
These three and others allegedly conspired to bribe Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to obtain business for the financial institution, including the fund's bond deals. They also allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds through purchasing luxury New York real estate, artwork, and financing major Hollywood films, such as The Wolf of Wall Street.
For prior coverage of the fund's scheme, please see here.
Swiss banker sentenced to 10 years in Venezuelan state-owned oil company embezzlement and bribery scheme; official pleads guilty in same scheme
On October 29, a former banker was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder funds embezzled from a Venezuelan state-owned oil company. The banker had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 22, 2018. He admitted to using his position at the bank to attract clients from Venezuela. He helped some of those clients launder proceeds from the company's foreign-exchange embezzlement scheme using false-investment schemes and Miami real estate. The PDVSA money was originally obtained through bribery and fraud.
Two days later, on October 31, a former executive director of financial planning at the Venezuelan state-owned oil company pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in the same scheme. He admitted to accepting $5 million in bribes to give priority loan status to a French company and Russian bank. The former executive was paid with the proceeds of the same foreign-exchange embezzlement scheme. He admitted that he ultimately received $12 million in bribes for his participation in the embezzlement scheme and laundered that money with a co-defendant through a false-investment scheme. He is expected to be sentenced on January 9, 2019.
CEO of Haitian development and reconstruction company charged in bribery scheme
On October 30, the DOJ charged a dual U.S.-Haitian citizen with conspiracy to violate the FCPA, commit money laundering, and violate the Travel Act, as well as substantive Travel Act violations. The individual is a licensed attorney and the CEO of a Haitian development and reconstruction company. The indictment is part of an ongoing case against a retired U.S. Army colonel who was indicted in 2017 related to an alleged plan to solicit bribes from potential investors for infrastructure projects in Haiti. (For prior coverage of the charges against the colonel, please see here.) According to the indictment, at a meeting in 2015, the citizen and retired colonel met with undercover FBI agents posing as potential investors in the development project, and allegedly asked the agents to invest $84 million in the project. The colonel told them that 5 percent of that total would be paid to Haitian officials to secure approval for the project. The colonel allegedly planned to disguise the funds through a non-profit he controlled. The FBI then wired money to the non-profit.
International police organization chief detained in China on bribery allegations
In late September, the chief of an international police organization at the time and a former vice minister of China’s national police, reportedly went missing during a trip home to China. According to his wife, his last known communication was a text message to her containing a knife emoji and an instruction to “wait for my call.” According to reports, after his wife, French authorities, and the organization issued public pleas, Chinese authorities disclosed this week that he has been detained pursuant to a government investigation into bribery and other allegations. He abruptly resigned his post at the organization and has not been available for comment.
His detention is notable due to his international stature as the organization's chief, however, he is just the latest in a string of high-ranking Chinese officials to reportedly have been swept up in widespread graft investigations by the Governing Communist Party under President Xi Jingping. A release from the Ministry of Public Security reportedly claims that his arrest demonstrates that “there is no privilege and no exception before the law.” It goes on to state: “Anyone who violates the law must be severely punished. We must resolutely uphold the authority and dignity of the law, bearing in mind that the red line of the law cannot be overstepped. . . It is necessary to make the legal system a ‘high-voltage line’ of electricity.”
Oil services company CEO and executive sentenced to prison for conspiracy to bribe foreign officials
On September 28, the DOJ announced that a former CEO and a former executive of an oil services company had been sentenced to prison and fined for their roles in a scheme to bribe foreign government officials in Brazil, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea in exchange for oil-services contracts. In November 2017, the former CEO of the company and a former sales and marketing executive at the company each had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA. The former CEO was sentenced to 36 months in prison and a fine of $150,000 for authorizing payments in furtherance of the bribery scheme, and the former executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a fine of $50,000 for using a third-party sales agent to pay bribes to Brazil officials.
The company itself entered into a $238 million three-year deferred prosecution agreement and its subsidiary pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.
Prior Scorecard coverage of the company can be found here.
Class certification granted to hedge fund investors
On September 14, a New York federal district court granted class certification to a group of shareholder investors suing an American hedge fund management firm and two of its senior executives on the grounds that the investors were misled about a government investigation into the company’s activities in Africa. In finding that the proposed class met all the requirements for certification, the court certified a class of investors that held some of the more than 100 million outstanding shares between February 2012 and August 2014, the time period in which the firm allegedly violated the Securities Exchange Act. Plaintiffs claim that the firm told investors it was not under any pending judicial or administrative proceeding that might have a material impact on the firm, when in fact it was under DOJ and SEC investigation over allegations that its employees were bribing government officials in Africa. The allegations against the firm were made public in 2014 media reports detailing government scrutiny into its dealings in Africa.
Click here for prior FCPA Scorecard’s coverage of this matter.