Stryker medical device maker pays $13.2 million settling foreign bribe charges in whistleblower case

Stryker Corporation, a major manufacturer of medical devices will pay more than $13.2 million to resolve charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for paying bribes to foreign officials in Argentina, Greece, Mexico, Poland and Romania.

The bribes were paid in order to obtain approximately $7.5 million in gains.

The moneys were apparently paid by Stryker’s foreign subsidiaries in those nations, which does not diminish the culpability of corporations here to the anti-bribe laws which are now being more stringently enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC).

In this case, the SEC alleged that Stryker’s Mexican subsidiary in one instance, instructed a Mexican law firm to pay $46,000 to a Mexican government employee in order to secure Stryker’s Mexican status as the winning bidder to sell medical devices to hospitals there.

Payments by medical device manufacturers to foreign officials and doctors being paid by the government is not unusual. Now whistleblowers are coming forward as they can collect up to 30% of the moneys collected by the SEC.

Jeff Newman represents whistleblowers.