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SEC Extracts $15 Million From Rio Tinto In First Corporate Enforcement Action Of 2023

By on March 7, 2023 in 2023 Enforcement Action, Foreign Issuers, Guinea, Mining Industry, Political Contributions, Rio Tinto, SEC Enforcement Action, Third Parties, Unsuccessful Bribery Schemes
RioTinto

In the minds of some (including former FCPA enforcement officials – see here), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement is a convenient cash cow for the U.S. government.

Those who believe this will find new support in the first corporate FCPA enforcement action of 2023.

The basic findings are as follows.

Approximately 12 years ago, Rio Tinto (a metal and mining company with headquarters in Australia and the United Kingdom) hired a French investment banker and close friend of a former senior Guinean government official as a consultant to help the company retain mining rights in Guinea.

Even though both Australia and the United Kingdom have laws and law enforcement resources to adequately address the conduct at issue, the U.S. nevertheless extracted $15 million from Rio Tinto because the company had American Depository Shares that traded on a U.S. exchange.

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Honeywell Resolves Net $82 Million FCPA Enforcement Action Concerning Conduct In Brazil And Algeria

By on December 20, 2022 in 2022 Enforcement Action, Algeria, Brazil, DOJ Enforcement Action, Honeywell, Oil and Gas Industry, SEC Enforcement Action, Third Parties, Unaoil
Honeywell

Turns out, things were not so well at Honeywell.

As highlighted in this prior post, in mid-2019 Honeywell disclosed that it was cooperating with the DOJ/SEC and Brazilian law enforcement investigations relating to its use of third parties in relation to Petrobras (Brazil) business as well as a matter involving a foreign subsidiary’s prior engagement of Unaoil in Algeria.

Yesterday, the DOJ and SEC announced (see here and here) a parallel Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Honeywell UOP (a U.S. based subsidiary of Honeywell International) and Honeywell International.

The net $82 million enforcement action involved a DOJ component (net $39.6 million) and an SEC component (net $42.4 million).

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ABB Becomes The First Company To Resolve THREE FCPA Enforcement Actions

By on December 6, 2022 in 2022 Enforcement Action, ABB, DOJ Enforcement Action, Foreign Issuers, Repeat Offenders, Root Causes, SEC Enforcement Action, South Africa, Third Parties, Uncategorized
Trifecta

The first time ABB resolved a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action was in 2004 concerning conduct in Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan.

The second time ABB resolved an FCPA enforcement action was in 2010 concerning conduct in Mexico as well as in connection with the Iraqi U.N. Oil for Food program.

Since 2017 (see here for the prior post), ABB has been under additional FCPA scrutiny and last Friday ABB became the first company to resolve an FCPA enforcement action for a third time. The latest enforcement action concerned conduct in South Africa and the net FCPA settlement amount was $147.5 million (a DOJ component of net $72.5 million and an SEC component of net $75 million).

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Oracle Becomes The 20th Corporate FCPA Repeat Offender

By on September 28, 2022 in 2022 Enforcement Action, Customer Discounts, Distributor Issues, India, Oracle, Repeat Offenders, SEC Enforcement Action, Technology Industry, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
oracle

As highlighted in this prior post, in 2012 Oracle resolved a $2 million SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action finding that “Oracle violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA by failing to prevent Oracle India Private Limited from keeping unauthorized side funds at distributors from 2005 to 2007.”

As a condition of settlement, Oracle consented to the entry of a final judgment, among other things, “permanently enjoining it from future violations” of the books and records and internal controls provisions and in resolving the matter the SEC noted the “significant enhancements” Oracle made to its FCPA compliance program.

Yesterday, the SEC announced a $22.9 million FCPA enforcement action against Oracle “to resolve charges that it violated provisions of the FCPA when subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and India created and used slush funds to bribe foreign officials in return for business between 2016 and 2019.”

In resolving a second FCPA enforcement action, Oracle becomes the 20th corporate FCPA repeat offender (see here for the list).

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Interesting

By on September 23, 2022 in Foreign Issuers, SEC Enforcement Action
Interesting

The SEC’s most recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action was against Gol Airlines – a Brazil corporation (see here for the prior post).

Prior to that, was the SEC’s FCPA enforcement action against Tenaris – a Luxembourg corporation (see here and here for prior posts). Prior to that, was the SEC’s FCPA enforcement against KT Corp. – a South Korean corporation (see here and here for prior posts). Prior to that was the SEC’s FCPA enforcement action against Credit Suisse – a Swiss Corporation (see here). Prior to that against WPP – a United Kingdom Corporation (see here). Prior to that, against Amec Foster Wheeler – a U.K. corporation and successor in interest to a Swiss corporation (see here). Prior to that, against Deutsche Bank – a German corporation (see here and here).

The only SEC FCPA enforcement actions in the last approximate two years against U.S. companies have been against Stericycle (see here and here for prior posts) and Goldman Sachs (see here and here for prior posts).

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