Deutsche Telekom AG and its Hungarian telecommunications unit agreed to pay more than $95 million in civil and criminal penalties to resolve U.S. probes over alleged bribes by former senior executives to government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro, authorities said Thursday.
The settlement resolves investigations stretching back about five years by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission against Deutsche Telekom and its majority-owned Magyar Telekom unit. The Wall Street Journal reported on the settlement, and there’s more here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Under the settlement, Magyar Telekom entered into a two-year deferred-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and agreed to pay a $59.6 million criminal penalty, along with another $31.2 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the SEC.
The Justice Department filed a document laying out the crimes, which charges Magyar Telekom with one count of violating the substantive provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans the use of bribes to foreign officials for obtaining or keeping business. The other two counts are associated with violating the books-and-records provisions of the FCPA.
If Magyar complies with the terms of the deferred-prosecution agreement for its duration, the charges will be dropped.
