Sensata Wins Declination, Sort Of

Massachusetts-based Sensata Technologies Holding N.V., part of our Corporate Investigations List, said Friday the DOJ has closed its inquiry but could reopen it if new evidence shows up.

The company said it hasn’t heard any news from the SEC about the investigation.

In 2010, Sensata launched an internal investigation into a third-party relationship in China.

It self reported the potential FCPA problems to the DOJ and SEC.

Sensata makes sensors and controls for the automotive, appliance, and aircraft industries.

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Here’s Sensata’s full FCPA disclosure from its Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on July 27:

During 2010, an internal investigation was conducted under the direction of the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors to determine whether any laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), may have been violated in connection with a certain business relationship entered into by one of our operating subsidiaries involving business in China. We believe the amount of payments and the business involved was immaterial. We discontinued the specific business relationship and our investigation has not identified any other suspect transactions. We contacted the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to make a voluntary disclosure of the possible violations, the investigation, and the initial findings. We have been fully cooperating with their review. During 2012, the DOJ informed us that it has closed its inquiry into the matter but indicated that it could reopen its inquiry in the future in the event it were to receive additional information or evidence. We have not received an update from the SEC concerning the status of its inquiry. The FCPA (and related statutes and regulations) provides for potential monetary penalties, criminal and civil sanctions, and other remedies. We are unable to estimate the potential penalties and/or sanctions, if any, that might be assessed and, accordingly, no provision has been made in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements.

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