Telefonaktiebtolaget LM Ericsson, a multinational telecommunications company based in Sweden, was fined more than $1 billion for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 6 press release. The penalty, stemming from a scheme to bribe government officials and falsify records, includes more than $520 million in criminal penalties and a $540 million penalty owed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 18-22 in case you missed them.
The former president of a Maryland transportation company was found guilty of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after bribing an official at Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, the Justice Department said Nov. 22. Mark Lambert, former president of Transportation Logistics Inc. (TLI), was found guilty of four counts of violating the FCPA, one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and other fraud-related charges.
Samsung Heavy Industries Company will pay more than $75 million to settle charges that it bribed Brazilian government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said Nov. 22. The South Korea-based engineering company agreed to split its settlement in two payments of $37,740,800 to the U.S. and to Brazilian authorities, the Justice Department said.
The former CEO of a Brazilian petrochemical company was charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his role in a money-laundering and bribery scheme, the Justice Department said Nov. 20. Jose Carlos Grubisich, the CEO of Braskem and an official of its parent company, Odebrecht, bribed Brazilian government officials and political parties in violation of the FCPA’s anti-bribery and books and records provision, the agency said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent penalty against a U.S. company’s sanctions and anti-corruption violations may be an indication of the SEC’s intent to begin penalizing sanctions violators, according to a Nov. 18 post by Squire Patton Boggs. The penalty marked a “rare foray” by the SEC into sanctions enforcement, the post said, and may signal its aim to explore new ways of policing companies.
Two Chinese citizens were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after bribing Chinese officials, the Justice Department said Nov. 14. Yanliang Li and Hongwei Yang, who held leadership positions at a Chinese subsidiary of an “international multi-level marketing company,” paid bribes to retain operating licenses in China and to suppress government investigations and negative media reports about their company, the agency said.
Two oil executives pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after trying to use bribes to secure oil and gas contracts, the Justice Department said in an Oct. 30 press release. Cyrus Ahsani and Saman Ahsani, the CEO and COO of a Monaco-based intermediary company, tried to bribe officials in multiple countries with millions of dollars, the press release said.
A Miami-based financial adviser pleaded guilty to money laundering charges after violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said in an Oct. 11 press release. Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda, a citizen of the U.S. and Ecuador, tried to bribe officials at Empresa Pública de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (PetroEcuador), Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, the press release said. Chatburn faces a 20-year maximum prison sentence.
China is increasing enforcement of compliance with measures aimed at countering commercial bribery by foreign companies, according to an Oct. 7 Lexology post from AnJie Law Firm. As companies increase efforts to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, they may also have to review their compliance under China’s recently amended Anti-unfair Competition Act, the post said, which cracks down on “unlawful commercial activities” by both domestic and foreign companies. The changes are “set to become as big a focus area as domestic companies' compliance with foreign laws,” the law firm said.