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Former oil-services sales executive pleads guilty in U.K. to bribery charges
On February 6, the U.K. SFO announced that a former sales executive of an oil-services company had pleaded guilty in the U.K. to 11 counts of bribery regarding payments made in exchange for winning oil-services contracts in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The executive – a British citizen and the former global head of sales for a subsidiary of the company – pleaded guilty to participating in payments of more than $6 million to agents to win contracts worth more than $4 billion in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The SFO’s investigation of the company regarding suspected bribery and money laundering, which was announced in May 2017, is ongoing, but no other officers or employees are currently charged.
British pharmaceutical company responds to inquiries from SFO, DOJ, and SEC regarding its use of third-party advisors in China
In a securities filing on Wednesday, Feb. 7, a U.K.-based pharmaceutical company announced that it is responding to requests for information from the DOJ and SEC regarding third-party advisors that the company engaged in China. These requests came about after the company, pursuant to its continuing obligation to report to the SEC on its efforts to improve compliance following its September 2016 settlement of allegations that it violated the FCPA, informed the SEC and DOJ that the SFO had sought additional information in the course of its own investigation, which began in May 2014. The company was also investigated by Chinese authorities and, in September 2014, the company’s Chinese subsidiary was reportedly found guilty of bribery resulting in the company’s payment of a $491.5 million fine.