This post highlights nine Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions concerning conduct (in whole or in part) in Greece.
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Greece, Vietnam and South Korea.
As to Greece, the allegations were: “Novartis Greece, through its employees and agents, knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed to corruptly provide improper benefits and things of value to employees of state-owned and state-controlled hospitals and clinics in Greece (“Greek State HCPs”) and other HCPs in Greece with the intent to obtain an improper advantage and to increase sales of a certain Novartis-branded prescription drug in Greece. Specifically, Novartis Greece sponsored Greek State HCPs to attend international congresses as a means to bribe and corruptly influence the HCPs to increase prescriptions of Lucentis a drug to treat adults with age-related macular degeneration].
Novartis Greece, through its employees and agents, also knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed to cause certain payments to be falsely recorded in Novartis AG’s books, records, and accounts. Specifically, Novartis Greece falsely recorded as legitimate advertising and promotion expenses: (a) corrupt payments related to the international congresses …; and (b) improper payments to HCPs related to an epidemiological study intended to increase sales of certain Novartis-branded prescription drugs. […] Novartis Greece recognized at least $71.48 million in profits … from sales of Lucentis in Greece and from sales of Novartis-branded prescription drugs related to the epidemiological study.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Argentina, and Greece.
As to Greece, the allegations were: “In 2007, Stryker’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Greece (“Stryker Greece”) made a sizeable and atypical donation of $197,055 to a public university (the “Greek University”) to fund a laboratory that was then being established by a foreign official who served as a prominent professor at the Greek University, and was the director of medical clinics at two public hospitals affiliated with the Greek University. As a result of this donation, Stryker Greece earned a total of $183,000 in illicit profits. The donation was made pursuant to a quid pro quo arrangement with the foreign official, pursuant to which Stryker Greece understood it would obtain and retain business from the public hospitals with which the foreign official was affiliated, in exchange for making the donation to the foreign official’s pet project. […] Stryker Greece made the donation to the Greek University in three installments, each of which was improperly booked as a legitimate marketing expense in an account entitled “Donations and Grants.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Greece, Poland, Romania, and Iraq.
As to Greece, the allegations were: “Between 1998 through 2006, DePuy [an acquired entity] and others conspired to “secure lucrative business with hospitals in the Greek public health care system by making and promising to make corrupt payments of money and things of value to publicly-employed Greek HCPs [healthcare professionals].”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Greece and the allegations were: “From 1997 to June 2008, two subsidiaries engaged in a scheme with a distributor who made illicit payments to public doctors employed by government hospitals or agencies in Greece.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Greece and the allegations were that through a subsidiary the company “made improper payments totaling approximately $536,000 to individuals connected to OTE [Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. – a telecommunications provider controlled and partially owned by the Greek Government] including employees of OTE’s subsidiaries Cosmote, Cosmofon, and Cosmorom to obtain or retain OTE’s business. The improper payments resulted in $1.2 million of improper benefit to Comverse Limited, which flowed through to Comverse.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in at least 22 countries – including China, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. The resolution documents do not contain any specific allegations regarding Greece.
Alliance One International (2010)
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, China, Greece, and Indonesia.
As to Greece, the allegations were: “In April 2003, [an acquired entity’s] subsidiary in Greece made a payment of $96,000 to a Greek tax official in exchange for the tax official’s agreement not to pursue certain irregularities discovered during an audit, thus significantly reducing Greece’s tax liability.”
The former executive of Control Components Inc. pleaded guilty to allegations focused on the Public Power Corporation of Greece (“Public Power”) – specifically that “on or about May 15, 2000” Edmonds “corruptly caused an e-mail to be sent authorizing the payment of approximately $45,000 to officials of Public Power for the purpose of securing Public Power’s business.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Greece and the allegations focused on the company’s business “with the Horse Races Administration of Greece (“ODIE”), an instrumentality of the Greek government … in connection with the sale of a totalisator system and spare parts for the Phaleron racetrack in Athens, Greece.”
