Colombian Companies Settle FCPA Charges With DOJ, SEC
Colombian conglomerate Grupo Aval and its subsidiary Corporacion Financiera Colombiana (Corficolombiana) will pay more than $60 million to settle allegations that the firms violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the SEC and DOJ announced last week. The government alleged Corficolombiana bribed Colombian government officials to win a contract for a 328-mile highway infrastructure project in the South American nation.
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Corficolombiana agreed to pay $40 million to the SEC and pay a $40.6 million criminal penalty and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ to settle criminal charges, DOJ said. The agency will credit up to half of that criminal penalty against money that the company and its subsidiary paid to Colombia in violation of the country's laws related to the same conduct. Grupo Aval and Corficolombiana also agreed to a cease and desist order finding they violated the FCPA's anti-bribery and accounting provisions.
The subsidiary allegedly paid $28 million in bribes to the officials, allowing the company to receive an "improper financial benefit totaling approximately $32 million," the SEC said. "Lax control environments are fertile ground for mischief, as illustrated here where bribes were funded through payments made for invoices lacking supporting documentation and contracts for vaguely described services typically handled internally rather than by third parties," said Charles Cain, the SEC's FCPA unit chief.