BizJet International Sales and Support Inc. agreed to pay an $11.8 million criminal fine and enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ to resolve FCPA offenses in Latin America.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company provides aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul services.
BizJet’s owner, Lufthansa Technik AG of Germany, also entered into a three-year deferred prosecution with the DOJ. It agreed to provide ongoing cooperation and enhance its internal controls.
The DOJ’s one-count criminal information filed today in federal court in Oklahoma charged BizJet with conspiring to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.
BizJet bribed officials at the Mexican Policia Federal Preventiva, the Mexican Coordinacion General de Transportes Aereos Presidenciales, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sinaloa, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, and the Republica de Panama Autoridad Aeronautica Civil. It paid bribes directly to the foreign officials, the DOJ said, or through a shell company owned and operated by a BizJet sales manager.
‘BizJet executives orchestrated, authorized, and approved the unlawful payments,’ the DOJ said.
BizJet and Lufthansa Technik weren’t required to retain compliance monitors.
Lufthansa Technik is one of the world’s biggest providers of aircraft services. It operates through more than 30 companies with about 25,000 employees worldwide. It is a 100% subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe.
The DOJ said BizJet and Lufthansa Technik self disclosed the FCPA violations and gave ‘extraordinary cooperation, including conducting an extensive internal investigation, voluntarily making U.S. and foreign employees available for interviews, and collecting, analyzing and organizing voluminous evidence and information for the department.’
Both companies, the DOJ said, also ‘engaged in extensive remediation, including terminating the officers and employees responsible for the corrupt payments, enhancing their due-diligence protocol for third-party agents and consultants, and heightening review of proposals and other transactional documents for all BizJet contracts.’
The DOJ said it worked closely on the case with its law-enforcement counterparts in Mexico and Panama.
_________________
View the DOJ’s March 14, 2012 release here.
Comments are closed for this article!