Gunvor Resolves Net $474.4 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
In 2021, Raymond Kohut (a Canadian citizen who lived in the Bahamas and worked in business development for Gunvor Group Ltd., a Switzerland based commodities firm) pleaded guilty in connection with an Ecuador bribery scheme. (See here for the prior post).
Last week, the DOJ returned to the same core conduct in announcing a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Gunvor.
The net FCPA settlement amount was $474.4 million (a $187.3 million criminal fine and a $287.1 million forfeiture amount).
Yet Additional FCPA Enforcement Actions Concerning Ecuador’s Seguros Sucre
From time to time, there are certain Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions in which the core allegations just seem to “keep on giving” and spawn several related enforcement actions.
A prime example were the many FCPA (and related) enforcement actions involving Haiti Teleco from approximately ten years ago (see here) and the many recent enforcement actions concerning Venezuela’s PDVSA.
Enforcement actions concerning Ecuador’s Seguros Sucre S.A. (“Seguros Sucre”), an alleged state-owned insurance company and “instrumentality” of the Ecuadorian government, are beginning to add up as well. In 2022 U.K.-based reinsurance broker, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Holdings Ltd. (JLT) resolved a $29 million FCPA enforcement action (see here for the prior post) and eight individuals have been criminally charged (and several have pleaded guilty) in connection with the same underlying conduct.
The latest enforcement action was yesterday’s announcement by the DOJ that Tysers Insurance Brokers Limited (Tysers – formerly known and doing business during the relevant time period as Integro Insurance Brokers Limited an international reinsurance broker based in the United Kingdom) and H.W. Wood Limited (an international reinsurance broker based in the United Kingdom) resolved a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action for “participation in a corrupt scheme to pay bribes to Ecuadorian government officials.”
The net settlement amount in the Tysers enforcement action is $46.5 million and the net settlement amount in the H.W. Wood enforcement action is $508,000 based on inability to pay.
That Stinks: Safran S.A. Quietly Resolves $17.2 Million Enforcement Action Involving “Train Lavatory Contracts”
Some Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions are accompanied by DOJ press releases and much fanfare and some are not.
In the later category, earlier this week this letter was quietly posted to the DOJ’s FCPA website indicating that Safran S.A. (a French company) resolved a $17.2 “declination with disgorgement” enforcement action.
According to the DOJ letter, bribery was “committed by employees and agents of the Company’s U.S. subsidiary Monogram Systems (Monogram) and its German subsidiary EVAC GmbH (EVAC).”
Issues To Consider From The Glencore Enforcement Action
This previous post highlighted the recent net $443 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Glencore.
This post highlighted the CFTC’s related enforcement action against the company.
This post discussed how the executive officer certification in the FCPA enforcement action sets up Glencore personnel to fail.
This post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider from the Glencore FCPA enforcement action.
Timeline
Glencore Resolves An Approximately $443 Million Net FCPA Enforcement Action
In mid-2018 Glencore (a commodities company incorporated in the United Kingdom and headquartered in Switzerland disclosed that it was under scrutiny by the DOJ. (See here for the prior post).
Specifically, the company disclosed:
“Glencore Ltd, a subsidiary of Glencore plc, has received a subpoena dated 2 July, 2018 from the US Department of Justice to produce documents and other records with respect to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and United States money laundering statutes. The requested documents relate to the Glencore Group’s business in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela from 2007 to present. Glencore is reviewing the subpoena and will provide further information in due course as appropriate.”