Legal News

SEC, DOJ Join Bribery Investigation Involving Hewlett-Packard

By Ashby Jones

It’s not exactly like the Justice Department or Securities & Exchange Commission to stand by and watch European regulators conduct a sizable bribery investigation of a high-profile U.S. company. It’s like asking a child to stand still after a pinata’s been smashed open.

So we weren’t exactly surprised to find out that on Thursday that, mere hours after we’d written up news of the European bribery investigation of Hewlett-Packard, word broke that U.S. authorities were also looking into the matter, focusing chiefly on whether H-P violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Click here for the WSJ story, from David Crawford and Dionne Searcey.

German prosecutors have centered their inquiry into the suspected bribes on one current and two former H-P senior executives, according to German court records and people familiar with the probe. Those under investigation include a former head of H-P’s sales operations in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

German prosecutors are investigating whether H-P executives paid €8 million ($10.9 million) in bribes, via a complex network, to win a €35 million Russian contract. German authorities ordered the arrest of the three in early December on suspicion of bribing foreign officials, tax evasion and breach of trust, according to court records. All have since been released on bail, and haven’t been indicted. A prosecution spokesman said they remain suspects, but that investigators haven’t found any evidence that they enriched themselves.

An H-P spokeswoman said the company had discussions Thursday with the SEC regarding the German probe “and is fully cooperating with U.S. and German authorities on this matter.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 16, 2010 (boomark / email).