OEM pleads guilty to bribing Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in order to secure $42 million contract.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that HP has been fined $58 million (€45 million) in the US after it admitted that its Russian subsidiary had “made illegal payments of at least $9 million (€7 million) in Russia” as it aimed to “secure a lucrative contract” worth $42 million (€32.5 million).
The OEM pleaded guilty to using “slush funds, buyback schemes and shell companies” to win the contract, which would have seen the company “supply computers and other technological products” to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the statement, Russian officials used the money for “travel, luxury cars, jewellery, clothing and furniture” among other things; although it did not say when the incident occurred.
While HP and other multinational companies that had also bribed Russian officials have not “faced any legal trouble in Russia so far”, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) means that companies that do business in the US are “legally responsible for corruption abroad”; with “numerous multinational corporations” admitting to violating the FCPA in Russia since 2010, including Siemens, Daimler and Pfizer.
In Russia, agencies that have reportedly accepted bribes from such companies, in addition to the Prosecutor General’s Office, include the customs authorities, the Interior Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Federal Guard Service; none of which have faced any legal action in the country.
The Recycler reported in April that HP subsidiaries had also been fined for bribing officials in Poland and Mexico, in addition to Russia; with the OEM facing a total of $108 million (€83.5 million) in fines for all three countries.