InfoBytes Blog
Brazilian investment company agrees to pay over $284 million to settle FCPA violations
On October 14, the DOJ announced it had entered into a plea agreement with a Brazil-based investment company that owns companies primarily involved in the meat and agricultural business, in which the company agreed to pay a criminal penalty of over $256 million related to violations of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. According to the DOJ, between 2005 and 2017, to execute the bribery scheme in Brazil, the company “conspired with others to violate the FCPA by paying bribes to Brazilian government officials in order to ensure that Brazilian state-owned and state-controlled banks would enter into debt and equity financing transactions with [the company and company]-owned entities, as well as to obtain approval for a merger from a Brazilian state-owned and state-controlled pension fund.” Specifically, between 2005 and 2014, the company paid or promised more than $148 million in bribes to high-level Brazilian government officials, in exchange for receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in financing from a Brazilian state-owned and state-controlled bank. In another instance, the company paid more than $4.6 million in bribes to a high-ranking executive of a Brazilian state-controlled pension fund in exchange for the fund’s approval of a significant merger that benefited the company. The company also paid approximately $25 million in bribes to a high-level Brazilian government official in order to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars of financing from a different Brazilian state-owned and state-controlled bank. Company executives also “used New York-based bank accounts to facilitate the bribery scheme and to make corrupt payments, purchased and transferred a Manhattan apartment as a bribe, and met in the United States to discuss and further aspects of the illegal scheme.”
The announcement noted that the company did not voluntarily disclose the violations but still received partial credit and a 10 percent reduction off the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines fine range for its remediation and cooperation with the DOJ’s investigation. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the company will pay the U.S. approximately $128.2 million of the $256 million criminal penalty. The remaining portion will be offset by $128.2 million in penalties the company will pay pursuant to a resolution with the Brazilian authorities. The company also agreed to continue to cooperate with the DOJ in any ongoing or future criminal investigations, and will enhance its compliance program, and report on the implementation of its enhanced compliance program for a three-year period.
The SEC simultaneously announced a resolution in a related matter with the company, along with a majority-owned subsidiary and two Brazilian nationals who own the company and the subsidiary. According to the SEC, the Brazilian nationals engaged in a bribery scheme to facilitate the subsidiary’s acquisition of a U.S. food corporation. The SEC charged the two companies and individuals with violations of the books and records and internal accounting provisions of the FCPA. Under the terms of the cease and desist order, the subsidiary must pay approximately $27 million in disgorgement and the two Brazilian nationals are required to each pay civil penalties of $550,000. All parties also agreed to self-report on the status of certain remedial measures for a three-year period.