Fresenius Medical Care, a German company with offices here, has settled allegations of a foreign bribe and will pay $255 million to the U.S. Government.
The German dialysis giant also said that it had booked charges of $254.6 million (ƤĀĆ„224.0 million) as of Dec. 31, 2018, to cover the settlement of FCPA charges leveled by the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Justice Dept. Fresenius stated that it voluntarily reported potential FCPA violations to the agencies after a whistleblower’s email in 2012 and cooperated with the ensuing government investigations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the anonymous whistleblower sent the email alleging widespread bribery asserting widespread bribery in Latin America. Two lawyers representing the whistleblower, Christopher Connors and Andy Rickman said that submitted the April 2012 email to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“In the course of this dialogue, the company identified and reported to the government, and took remedial actions including employee disciplinary actions with respect to, conduct that resulted in the government seeking monetary penalties and other remedies against the company and disgorgement of related profits revolving principally around conduct in the company’s products business in a limited number of countries outside the United States,” Fresenius said in a Feb. 20 regulatory filing.
