This post highlights FCPA enforcement actions concerning conduct (in whole or in part) in Pakistan and Nepal.
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Russia, Azerbaijani, China, Kuwait, South Korea, Pakistan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
As to Pakistan, the allegations were: “In addition to the purely leisure trips arranged by Otis to influence foreign officials, at times UTC businesses provided excessive leisure travel and entertainment in conjunction with legitimate business travel. For example, from 2012 to 2014, the Pratt Belgium Engine Center paid for excessive, leisure hotel stays in Belgium and Amsterdam for Air Force officials from Pakistan …”.
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Nepal and Bangladesh.
As to Pakistan, the allegations were: ““In 2008, for example, Smith & Wesson retained a third-party agent in Pakistan to assist the company in obtaining a deal to sell firearms to a Pakistani police department. Even after the agent notified the company that he would be providing guns valued in excess of $11,000 to Pakistani police officials in order to obtain the deal, and that he would be making additional cash payments to the officials, the company authorized the agent to proceed with the deal. Smith & Wesson’s Vice President of International Sales and its Regional Director of International Sales authorized the sale of the guns to the agent to be used as improper gifts and authorized payment of the commissions to the agent, while knowing or consciously disregarding the fact that the agent would be providing the guns and part of his commissions to Pakistani officials as an inducement for them to award the tender to the company. Smith & Wesson ultimately sold 548 pistols to the Pakistani police for $210,980 and profited from the corrupt deal in the amount of $107,852.”
As to Nepal, the allegations were: “Smith & Wesson authorized improper payments to third party agents who indicated that parts of these payments would be provided to foreign officials in Nepal … in unsuccessful attempts to secure sales contracts in those countries. Although these contemplated deals in Nepal … were never consummated in each case, the company had obtained or attempted to obtain the contract by using third party agents as a conduit for improper payments to government officials.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia.
As to Pakistan, the allegations were: “Starting at least in 2005 and continuing into 2009, Wyeth Pakistan [a Pakistani company that was an indirect majority-owned subsidiary of Wyeth] employees provided improper benefits to doctors who were employed by healthcare institutions owned or controlled by the Pakistani government. These improper benefits included cash payments, travel, office equipment and renovations, and were intended to influence the doctors to recommend Wyeth products to new mothers.” “Wyeth Pakistan employees and local management took steps to conceal the true nature of the transactions by inaccurately recording them as “Advertising and Sales Promotion,” “Film Show,” “Entertainment,” “Product Meetings,” and “Give Aways and Gifts,” among other false and misleading descriptions.”
The enforcement action concerned conduct in South Africa and Nepal.
As to Nepal, the allegations were: “In or around and between November 2015 and at least August 2018, AAR, through Sharma, knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed with others to corruptly offer and pay bribes to, and for the benefit of, government officials in Nepal, including Nepal Official [a Nepali citizen who served as a high-level official at Nepal Airlines Corporation – NAC] from at least approximately 2015 through 2019], to secure improper advantages in order to assist AAR in obtaining and retaining business from NAC, namely to win a bid to sell two Airbus A330-200 aircraft to NAC (“NAC Transaction”). As a result of the bribe scheme, AAR obtained profits of approximately $6 million in connection with the NAC Transaction.”
