The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged that Hewlett-Packard had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when subsidiaries in three countries made improper payments to government officials to obtain or retain lucrative public contracts. H-P will pay more than $108 million to settle the SEC’s charges and a parallel criminal case announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SEC found that an HP subsidiary in Russia paid more than $2 million through agents and shell companies to a Russian government official to retain a multi-million dollar contract. In Poland, a company subsidiary provided gifts and cash bribes worth more than $600,000 to a Polish government official to obtain contracts with the national police agency. And a subsidiary in Mexico paid more than $1 million in inflated commissions to a consultant with close ties to company officials, and money was funneled to one of those officials.
HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., operates a printing division in Vancouver.
