Tim Crudo quoted in "Gibson Dunn, Fenwick Advise HP on $108 Million FCPA Settlement"
Tim Crudo is quoted in “Gibson Dunn, Fenwick Advise HP on $108 Million FCPA Settlement” by Julia Love, The Recorder
April 09, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard Co. will pay more than $108 million to resolve allegations that it bribed foreign officials in Russia, Poland and Mexico to win lucrative government contracts.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice announced sweeping settlements with HP on Wednesday that address alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the three countries. As part of the deal, HP’s Russian subsidiary admitted it paid bribes to land a technology contract with the Russian government and will plead guilty to violating the FCPA. The company’s subsidiaries in Mexico and Poland also admitted wrongdoing in exchange for nonprosecution and deferred prosecution agreements, respectively.
HP will shell out nearly $76.8 million in criminal penalties and forfeiture. The company will also pay almost $31.5 million to settle administrative proceedings brought by the SEC. HP and its subsidiaries netted about $29 million from the schemes, according to the SEC’s order.
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Wednesday’s deals settle the matter for HP, but its employees may not be in the clear. Both the SEC and the DOJ have vowed to go after individuals in recent years, and FCPA cases are no exception, though the prosecutions can be tricky to carry out, lawyers say.
“I think that if they can make cases against individuals, they will,” said Timothy Crudo, who heads the white-collar defense and government enforcement practice group at San Francisco’s Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass. “But these kinds of cases often by definition involve folks in far-off countries.”