The former CEO of 500.com, which now operates as crypto mining company BIT Mining Ltd., was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to Japanese government officials, DOJ announced. In addition, BIT Mining agreed to settle DOJ and SEC investigations into its FCPA violations, entering into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits people and entities from paying money and other forms of bribes to foreign officials to obtain or retain business. The following are recent stories about FCPA-related enforcement actions:
A Venezuela-based subsidiary of Telefonica, a global telecommunications operator based in Spain, will pay over $85.2 million to settle charges that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced. The U.S. alleged that Telefonica Venezolana bribed Venezuelan government officials in exchange for preferential access to U.S. dollars in a currency auction.
Oil trader Gary Oztemel will pay $301,575 to settle charges that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for paying over $1 million in bribes to Brazilian officials to secure contracts for two U.S. energy corporations. Oztemel pleaded guilty in June to money laundering, leading to the final plea settlement.
American defense firm RTX will pay close to $1 billion to resolve allegations that it tried to defraud the U.S. government and committed violations of defense export control regulations and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ and the SEC said Oct. 16. The company agreed to enter into two deferred prosecution agreements to settle the claims, which included Raytheon’s alleged failure to report bribes in export licensing applications and its submission of false information to the U.S. as part of multiple foreign military defense contracts.
A former Connecticut oil trader was convicted Sept. 26 of paying more than $1 million in bribes to Brazilian officials to secure lucrative contracts for two U.S. energy corporations.
Javier Aguilar of Houston, former trader at energy trading firm Vitol, pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and taking part in interstate and foreign commerce to distribute bribery proceeds, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. Aguilar paid bribes to officials at the procurement wing of PEMEX, a Mexican state-owned oil company.
Three election voting machine and service provider company executives, along with a former chairman of the Philippines' Commission on Elections, were charged with bribing officials in the Philippines to retain business in the 2016 Philippines elections, DOJ announced. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment against the four men Aug. 8, charging two of them with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and violating the FCPA.
A dual U.S.-Ghana citizen made his initial appearance in a New York court July 16, a day after being extradited from the U.K. for his role in a scheme to bribe Ghanaian officials, DOJ announced. Asante Kwaku Berko is charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of violating the FCPA and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.
Gerald Moody, former assistant chief for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit of DOJ's Fraud Section, has joined Akin as a partner in the white collar defense and government investigations practice, the firm announced. Moody worked at DOJ for over eight years, starting as a federal prosecutor in the FCPA unit in 2016 and serving as assistant chief beginning in January 2021.
DOJ struck a deal with Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, members of his family and trust entities he established to settle two civil forfeiture cases stemming from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad international embezzlement scheme, DOJ announced.