Archive

August 27, 2018

Legg Mason Inc. has agreed to pay $34 million to settle a charge that it bribed Libyan government officials to secure investments from state-owned financial institutions. As a result of the bribes, which violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Legg Mason was allegedly awarded investments worth $1 billion, and earned revenues totaling $31.6 million. The SEC fine comes at the heels of a $33 million fine that Legg Mason had previously agreed to pay to DOJ in a similar settlement. SEC

July 16, 2018

The CFTC has announced its first whistleblower award to a foreign whistleblower. The award totals over $70K, but the investigation that resulted in the award is yet-to-be revealed. This is the second award made under the CFTC’s new whistleblower rules, after the largest award in CFTC history, paid on July 12, 2018. CFTC

July 5, 2018

Credit Suisse will pay a total of $77 million – $47 million as a criminal penalty and $30 million in disgorgement and interest – to resolve charges that it obtained investment banking business in the Asia-Pacific region by corruptly influencing foreign officials in violation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  The government charged that Credit Suisse attempted to secure banking business by offering of employment to family and friends of influential Chinese government officials.  SEC; DOJ; USAO EDNY

July 2, 2018

Distilled spirits company Beam Suntory, Inc. agreed to pay more than $8 million to resolve charges that its Indian subsidiary made improper payments in violation of the FCPA.  Beam was alleged to have used third parties to make unlawful payments to government employees to induce them to process license and label registrations and purchase Beam's products.  The third parties submitted false and inflated invoices to Beam, which paid them through its Indian subsidiary.  SEC

June 27, 2018

Egbert Yvan Ferdinand Koolman, an Aruban telecommunications purchasing official was sentenced to 36 months in prison related to money laundering charges in connection with a scheme to arrange and receive payment to influence the awarding of contract with an Aruban-owned company. Koolman along with others admitted to transmitting funds from Florida and other areas of the United States to Aruba and Panama in a wire fraud scheme that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). DOJ

June 4, 2018

France-based global financial services institution Société Générale S.A. and a wholly-owned subsidiary agreed to collectively pay penalties and disgorgement in excess of $1 billion to resolve U.S. and French charges related to the bribery of Libyan officials between 2004 and 2009 in exchange for various investments worth more than $3 billion, as well as the manipulation of LIBOR through the issuance of false financial data. USAO EDNY

June 4, 2018

Maryland-based investment management firm Legg Mason, Inc. will pay $64.2 million to end an FCPA investigation into Legg Mason’s participation in a scheme to bribe Gaddafi-era Libyan officials; Legg Mason’s involvement, through subsidiary Permal Group Ltd., was in partnership with Société Générale S.A., which also settled today. USAO EDNY

May 16, 2018

The SEC charged the owner of a Manhattan-based alternative investment firm with misappropriating close to $6 million in investor funds earmarked to finance the construction of an international airport in Belize. The SEC’s complaint alleges that between 2014 and 2017, Brent Borland sold more than $21 million of promissory notes to dozens of investors, promising that the funds would be used as bridge financing for development of an international airport in Placencia, Belize, and that the investments would be protected by pledges of real estate as collateral. Borland marketed and sold the notes through two companies, Borland Capital Group LLC, which purports to be active in “alternative investment,” and Belize Infrastructure Fund I, LLC, which purports to be in the business of construction finance. SEC

April 30, 2018

The SEC announced that Japan-based Panasonic Corp. will pay more than $143 million to resolve charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and accounting fraud violations involving its global avionics business. According to the SEC’s order, Panasonic’s U.S. subsidiary, Panasonic Avionics Corp. (PAC), a provider of in-flight entertainment and communication systems, offered a lucrative consulting position to a government official at a state-owned airline to induce the official to help PAC in obtaining and retaining business from the airline. At the time it orchestrated the bribery scheme, PAC was negotiating two agreements with the airline valued at more than $700 million. PAC ultimately retained the official and paid approximately $875,000 for a position that required little to no work, using an unrelated third-party vendor to conceal the payments. SEC

March 26, 2018

The SEC announced a settled action against Canada-based Kinross Gold Corporation for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations arising from the company’s repeated failure to implement adequate accounting controls of two African subsidiaries. According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, Kinross Gold acquired the African subsidiaries in a $7.1 billion transaction in 2010, understanding that the subsidiaries lacked anti-corruption compliance programs and internal accounting controls. It took Kinross Gold almost three years to implement adequate controls, despite multiple internal audits flagging widespread deficiencies. The SEC’s order finds that Kinross Gold violated books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the federal securities laws. Without admitting or denying the findings, Kinross agreed to a cease-and-desist order, a penalty of $950,000 and undertakings to report on its remedial steps for a period of one year. SEC