Ericsson Bribery Scandal Cuts Deep, Surpassing $1B Penalty

Six years of investigations and $1.23 billion. That’s how much Ericsson now expects to lose in a potential settlement and related costs to resolve ethics breaches spanning six countries. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have been investigating the vendor since 2013 and 2015, respectively, over an alleged kickback scheme.

The SEC in particular has been probing possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. The fallout over the scandal has been widespread and ongoing, but this marks the first time Ericsson has put a price on what it expects to be a $1 billion penalty issued by U.S. authorities. That would make it one of the costliest corruption cases on record. read more »

Quad/Graphics pays $9.9 million to settle U.S. bribery, sanctions charges

Quad/Graphics Inc, a Wisconsin marketing and printing services company, will pay $9.9 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges it conducted bribery schemes in Peru and China and violated U.S. sanctions by dealing with a Cuban state-owned telecommunications company.

The SEC said on Thursday that Quad/Graphics will pay a $2 million civil fine plus about $7.9 million in disgorgement and interest to resolve charges it violated the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act between 2010 and 2016. read more »

German authorities raid Deutsche Bank over Danske scandal

German authorities have raided Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt headquarters in search of information related to Danske Bank and a money laundering scandal, Frankfurt prosecutors said on Wednesday.

They are investigating whether Germany’s biggest bank facilitated money laundering and whether it failed to alert authorities about suspicious transactions quickly enough, the prosecutors said.

Danske Bank is under investigation in several countries, including the United States, Denmark, Britain and Estonia, over suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($220 billion) moved through its tiny Estonian branch. Deutsche Bank acted as a correspondent bank for Danske. read more »