Three Regions, Four Settlement Tools and $108 Million: HP Entities Resolve Criminal and Civil FCPA Charges 

Hewlett-Packard and three of its subsidiaries in Russia, Mexico and Poland have resolved FCPA charges, paying $108 million in penalties.  The schemes involved bribes to obtain contracts with various government sectors and encompass different risk areas, such as third-party payments and gifts.  The entities resolved the actions through a guilty plea (for HP Russia), a deferred prosecution agreement (for HP Poland), a non-prosecution agreement (for HP Mexico) and a cease and desist order (for HP, the California-based parent company).  The criminal fines represent discounts from the low end of the Sentencing Guidelines range, unlike the recent Marubeni case, and no compliance monitor was imposed.  For insights from HP on its current compliance program, see “Conducting Effective Anti-Corruption Due Diligence on Third Parties: An Interview with Gwen Romack, Director of Global Anti-Corruption at Hewlett-Packard Company” (Oct. 9, 2013). 

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