ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Samsung Heavy Industries Company Limited agreed to pay more than $75 million to resolve the government’s investigation into violations arising out of a scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Brazil.
The South Korea-based engineering company provides shipbuilding, offshore platform construction, and other construction and engineering services.
“Samsung Heavy Industries caused millions of dollars in corrupt bribe payments to be paid to foreign officials to win business, upsetting what should have been a level playing field for other companies that followed the rules,” said U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia. “Effective corporate policies and procedures are necessary to ensure that corporations do not engage in foreign bribery. We will continue to hold corporations accountable.”
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said, “Samsung Heavy Industries paid millions of dollars to a Brazilian intermediary, knowing that some of that money would be used to bribe high-level executives at Petrobras and obtain a lucrative shipbuilding contract. Today’s resolution is yet one more example of the Department’s continued commitment to root out bribery and to work with our foreign counterparts to investigate schemes spanning multiple international jurisdictions.”
As part of the deferred prosecution agreement, Samsung Heavy Industries has agreed to continue to cooperate with the Department
in any ongoing investigations and prosecutions relating to the conduct, including of individuals; to enhance its compliance program, and to report to the Department on the implementation of its enhanced compliance program.