Tyco International will pay $26.8 million to settle a federal investigation into alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations at its foreign subsidiaries.
Between 2006 and 2009, the Switzerland-based company earned roughly $10.5 million by bribing officials in more than a dozen countries, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The alleged wrongdoing includes Tyco subsidiaries in Germany, Turkey and China, where employees reportedly doled out bribes and improperly recorded other payments. The misdeeds came to light after Tyco itself conducted an internal review and alerted regulators to the illegal payments.
Under the terms of the settlement, the security systems company will pay $13.68 million in fines to the Department of Justice and an additional $13.1 million in returned profits and interest to the SEC. In a separate case, one of Tyco’s Middle Eastern subsidiaries pleaded guilty Monday to bribing employees of a Saudi Arabian oil and gas company.
It’s been a tumultuous year for the company, which recently settled a long-running legal dispute with its former CEO Dennis Kozlowski. At issue was whether Kozlowski, who was convicted of securities fraud and grand larceny in 2005, should return $505.8 million in compensation and benefits to his former company. Last month, the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
For more InsideCounsel coverage of FCPA violations, see:
Pfizer will pay $60 million to settle federal FCPA investigations
SEC asks Wal-Mart for more details in its financial filings
Teva Pharmaceutical at center of FCPA probe
7 risk and compliance threats facing in-house counsel
Watts Water sues Sidley Austin over FCPA error
Wal-Mart lawyers highlight 5 countries with highest bribery risk
Groundbreaking FCPA case ends with dismissals
