Honeywell International has agreed to pay more than $160mn in settlements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice over charges that the industrial group engaged in bribery schemes in Algeria and Brazil.
The SEC on Monday said that Honeywell violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by allegedly paying bribes to obtain business with the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras. The company allegedly offered at least $4mn in payments to a high-ranking Brazilian government official in connection to a bidding process at the petroleum producer in 2010, it said.
The agency also said Honeywell’s Belgian subsidiary paid more than $75,000 in bribes in 2011 to an Algerian government official to win business with the Algerian state-owned oil company Sonatrach.
“For years, Honeywell neglected to implement sufficient internal accounting controls to mitigate against known corruption risks in countries like Brazil and Algeria,” Charles Cain, an SEC enforcement official, said in a statement. “This failure created an environment in which Honeywell employees and agents could and did facilitate bribes.”
Honeywell has consented to the SEC’s order that it violated the anti-bribery provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and has agreed to pay more than $81mn in a settlement charge with the agency. It has also agreed to pay a penalty of about $79mn to settle criminal charges brought by the DoJ in a parallel bribery case.
The DoJ agreed to credit $39.6mn of the criminal penalty against amounts the company has agreed to pay authorities in Brazil.
Honeywell International said it would pay a total of $202.7mn in penalties, disgorgement, and prejudgment interest.