On December 22, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited had agreed to pay more than $519 million to settle parallel civil and criminal charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to foreign government officials in Russia, Ukraine, and Mexico. The interesting aspect of this settlement is as the government alleges, the bribes were concealed in the form of legitimate payments to distributors.
It has been a long time coming. The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have been investigating the Israeli drug giant, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (“Teva”) for alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) violations since 2012. Four years later and right before Obama left office, the SEC finally announced a settlement with Teva.