This September 15th post regarding the SEC’s enforcement action against Jun Ping Zhang (the former Chairman and CEO of CareFx China, a dissolved Chinese subsidiary of Harris Corp) noted that the SEC, in the Ping Order, found that as a result of Ping’s conduct “Harris violated the FCPA’s books and records provisions.”
Elsewhere, the Order stated that as a result of the alleged improper conduct CareFx was awarded over $9.6 million in contracts.
Accordingly, the prior post wondered whether a future Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Harris Corp. would be forthcoming. Indeed, there have been several examples of the SEC first bringing an FCPA enforcement action against an individual and then following up with an FCPA enforcement action against the company. (For instance, in August 2015 the SEC brought an FCPA enforcement action against Vicente Garcia (a former head of Latin American sales for SAP) followed by SAP enforcement action in February 2016- see here).
It turns out that the answer to the question: will there be an FCPA enforcement action against Harris Corp. is no because in this SEC release issued on September 12th (a day before the September 13th Ping Order) the SEC states:
