UK SFO charges former UK-based engineering company employees with bribery conspiracy as DOJ declines to prosecute the company for FCPA violations

On August 17, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it was charging two former employees of Reading-based engineering company with “conspiracy to make corrupt payments.” The SFO alleged that the founder and former Managing Director of the company had “conspired to corruptly make payments to a public official and employee of [Korean research company].” The conduct allegedly occurred over a period of 13 years, from April 2002 to September 2015.

A few days later, on August 20, the DOJ published a letter informing the engineering company that it was declining to prosecute the company for potential FCPA and money laundering violations related to payments it had made to the former director of the Korean research company. In October 2017, the Korean company director was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison on a U.S. money laundering charge related to the bribery scheme. The DOJ’s letter stated that it was declining to prosecute because, among other reasons, the company voluntarily disclosed the misconduct, provided cooperation that assisted with the prosecution of the former director, undertook “significant remedial efforts,” and “committed to accepting responsibility” for its conduct in the parallel SFO investigation.