There have been several Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions regarding conduct in India (see here for some of the actions). Certain of those enforcement actions involved the conduct of Indian subsidiaries of U.S. issuers.
However, it is believed that there has never been an FCPA enforcement action against an Indian issuer.
That may change.
As highlighted in this prior post, in November 2020 Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., (an India-based pharmaceutical company with ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange) disclosed that it “has commenced a detailed investigation into an anonymous complaint” alleging that “healthcare professionals in Ukraine and potentially in other countries were provided with improper benefits in violation of U.S. laws.”
In a recent filing the company disclosed:
“The Company has commenced a detailed investigation into an anonymous complaint. The complaint alleges that healthcare professionals in Ukraine and potentially in other countries were provided with improper payments by or on behalf of the Company in violation of U.S. anti-corruption laws, specifically the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A U.S. law firm is conducting the investigation at the instruction of a committee of the Company’s Board of Directors. The investigation is ongoing. The Company has disclosed the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Securities Exchange Board of India. On July 6, 2021 the Company received a subpoena from the SEC for the production of documents pertaining to certain CIS geographies, and the Company is in the process of responding to the same. While the matter may result in government enforcement actions against the Company in the United States and/or foreign jurisdictions, which could lead to civil and criminal sanctions under relevant laws, the probability of such action and the outcome are not reasonably ascertainable at this time.”
