Hewlett-Packard Agrees To Pay $108 Million Penalty To Settle Foreign Bribery Charges

Source: CBS San Francisco

Hewlett-Packard Co. and its Russian, Polish and Mexican subsidiaries agreed Wednesday to pay $108 million in penalties to settle criminal and civil charges of paying bribes and illegal commissions to secure foreign government contracts.

... In total, the three subsidiaries agreed to pay $76.8 million in criminal penalties and fines to settle Justice Department probes of alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids bribes to foreign government officials to obtain contracts and requires certain internal accounting practices and controls.

HP agreed to pay another $31.5 million in civil penalties in a settlement of a related SEC probe.

... At the Justice Department, Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Bruce Swartz said, “Hewlett-Packard subsidiaries created a slush fund for bribe payments, set up an intricate web of shell companies and bank accounts to launder money, employed two sets of books to track bribe recipients, and used anonymous email accounts and prepaid mobile telephones to arrange covert meetings to hand over bags of cash.”

Read more: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/04/09/hewlett-packard-agrees-to-pay-108-million-penalty-to-settle-foreign-bribery-charges/