The DOJ last week imposed criminal penalties on Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary of $422 million for paying bribes in Brazil. That’s the seventh biggest FCPA resolution ever.
The deferred prosecution agreement (pdf) with Keppel and the plea agreement (pdf) with its U.S. unit assessed the $422 million penalty.
The DPA said half the penalty is payable in Brazil under a settlement with the Ministério Público Federal. A quarter of the penalty is payable in Singapore under a settlement with the Attorney General’s Chambers.
That means the U.S. portion of the criminal penalty is about $105 million. But according to the DPA, if Keppel pays less than the allocated amounts in Brazil or Singapore, it’s obligated to pay the difference to the United States.
The Keppel FCPA resolution is structured similar to Telia Company’s resolution in September with the DOJ and SEC.
In that case, the total penalties specified in the DOJ’s deferred prosecution agreement and the SEC’s administrative order added up to $965 million.
Telia’s DPA, like Keppel’s, said the total criminal penalty would be offset by penalties paid to Dutch and Swedish authorities.
(Using the total amount of penalties assessed by the DOJ or SEC or both in charging and settlement documents is consistent with how we accounted for the Odebrecht / Braskem FCPA enforcement action, which also allowed for offsets against payments to authorities in Brazil and Switzerland, and for VimpelCom, where some SEC-ordered disgorgement was payable to the Netherlands.)
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Here are the current top ten FCPA enforcement actions of all time based on assessed penalties:
1. Telia Company AB (Sweden): $965 million in 2017.
2. Siemens (Germany): $800 million in 2008.
3. VimpelCom (Holland) $795 million in 2016.
4. Alstom (France): $772 million in 2014.
5. KBR / Halliburton (United States): $579 million in 2009.
6. Teva Pharmaceutical (Israel): $519 million in 2016.
7. Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd.(Singapore): $422 million in 2017.
8. Och-Ziff (United States): $412 million in 2016.
9. BAE (UK): $400 million in 2010.
10. Total SA (France) $398 million in 2013.
Falling off the list is Alcoa (United States), which paid $384 million in 2014.
That leaves just two U.S.-based companies on the Top Ten list — KBR/Halliburton in the fifth spot, and Och-Ziff at number eight.
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
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