Telefónica Venezolana Resolves $85 Million Enforcement Action
Approximately ten years ago, a Venezuelan telecommunications company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Spanish telecommunications) allegedly bribed Venezuelan officials.
The end result is a $85 million U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against the Venezuelan telecommunications company.
The DOJ recently announced that “Telefónica Venezolana C.A. (Telefónica Venezolana), a Venezuela-based subsidiary of Telefónica S.A. (Telefónica), a publicly traded global telecommunications operator based in Spain, will pay over $85.2 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to bribe government officials in Venezuela to receive preferential access to U.S. dollars in a currency auction.
The root cause of many FCPA enforcement is a real-world business condition and in this regard the following is relevant to the Telefónica Venezolana enforcement action.
RTX Resolves Net $361 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
Raytheon (which changed its name to RTX in 2003) has been under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (and related) scrutiny for several years.
As highlighted in this prior post, in late July 2024 the company disclosed that it would be resolving (among other things) an FCPA matter and that settlement would include a DOJ deferred prosecution agreement (with an independent compliance monitor requirement) and an SEC order.
Today, the DOJ and SEC announced resolution of the matter. Resolution involved various prongs including the False Claims Act, the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Moog Inc. Resolves $1.7 Million FCPA Enforcement Action Based On Indian Subsidiary Conduct
Moog Inc. (“Moog”) is a worldwide designer and manufacturer of motion controls systems for a broad range of applications in aerospace, defense, industrial and medical markets. The New York headquartered company – with four operating segments: military aircraft, commercial aircraft, space and defense, and industrial – has shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange and has sales, engineering, and manufacturing facilities in twenty-six countries.
Moog is the latest company to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action.
Deere & Co. Resolves $9.9 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
As highlighted in this recent post, approximately 20% of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement activity takes place in the month of September as the SEC’s fiscal year comes to a close.
In September’s first FCPA enforcement (there have been several non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions already – see here), Deere & Co. has agreed to pay approximately $9.9 million to resolve an SEC matter based on the conduct of a subsidiary in Thailand. The enforcement action largely concerns Thai officials visiting massage parlors and participating in non-business travel funded by the subsidiary.
Boston Consulting Group Disgorges $14.4 Million In FCPA Matter
So-called “declinations with disgorgement” (first used by the DOJ in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2016) are just another resolution vehicle – among others – used by the DOJ to resolve alleged instances of FCPA scrutiny.
The latest example concerns Boston Consulting Group.
An August 27th letter from the DOJ to the company’s counsel (Cadwalader attorneys Jason Halper and Gina Catellano) and posted to the DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Policy Declination Page on August 28th states in full: