Siemens Pays Record $800 Million to Settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Charges

K&L Gates
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Alert
December 23, 2008

The stakes just went up

Nixon Peabody
December 22, 2008
This Update reviews the widely covered agreement of Siemens AG to plead guilty to violating the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and German anti-corruption laws and pay a staggering $1.6 billion in penalties. Noting that “the stakes are now even higher than before,” the Alert should serve as a stark reminder that FCPA enforcement actions will escalate as will the degree and sophistication of  intra-agency and international cooperation in tracking down and prosecuting corrupt practices.

Siemens AG Concludes FCPA Investigations with Record-Setting Criminal Penalty

Haynes Boone
December 18, 2008
This Alert looks at the extraordinary conclusion to the one of the largest investigations into corporate bribery in history. The total of the fines in the U.S. and Germany is $1.6 billion and there will almost certainly be more to come in the way of criminal prosecutions of individuals. Additionally Siemens will be subjected to the ongoing humiliation of having an independent corporate monitor supervise its anti-corruption efforts (likely in the form of a former German Finance Minister) for four years. How does one earn this infamy? The Alert quotes Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich to provide the answer:  “From the 1990s through 2007, Siemens engaged in a systematic and widespread effort to make and to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in bribe payments across the globe.”

The Alert also notes that this FCPA enforcement action reflects several recognizable FCPA trends, including the trend of larger monetary penalties, the DOJ’s commitment to prosecuting individuals, and the importance of a company’s appropriate and effective response to red flags that might signal illicit payments.