FCPA

5 additional penalty of $22.7 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest with similar offsets against the penalties paid to the SFO and the Brazilian authorities. In addition to the monetary penalties, AFW agreed to a three-year cooperation agreement with the DOJ and to take steps to improve its compliance programs and report its progress to the DOJ. This settlement predated Deputy Attorney General Monaco's announcement of more extensive use of monitorships going forward, which we discuss further below. On September 24, 2021, the SEC announced it had issued a cease-and-desist order against WPP PLC, a Jersey multinational marketing company headquartered in both London and New York City, for actions allegedly taken by employees at a subsidiary in India. According to the SEC, the subsidiary paid as much as one million dollars to officials in India in charge of appointing media agencies for advertising and public relations campaigns on behalf of the government. Between 2015 and 2017, WPP allegedly received seven anonymous tips of two bribery schemes facilitated by a third-party agency, paid off-the- books, to compensate the Indian officials. Despite having notice of these potential arrangements, WPP allegedly failed to uncover the scale of the misconduct and address the concerns of some anonymous employees for at least two years. According to the SEC, in 2017, after several years of explicit warnings, the company finally directed its legal team to conduct an internal investigation and then initiated a third-party due diligence review of the parties in question. WPP allegedly reaped $5.6 million in illicit profits from the schemes established by its Indian subsidiary. Effectively killing several birds with one stone, the SEC also wrapped several other separate alleged bribery schemes into the same enforcement action, the first centered around the company's subsidiary in Shanghai, China. The Chinese subsidiary allegedly paid thousands to tax officials in the lead-up to a significant tax audit, avoiding approximately $3.2 million in taxes. The company, according to the SEC, uncovered the scheme a few months later in early 2019 while conducting an unrelated review – though the SEC notes the company was allegedly aware its Chinese subsidiary employed tax avoidance schemes after an internal audit in 2017 and overlooked other warning signs. According to the SEC, WPP's subsidiaries in Peru and Brazil acted as a conduit for a construction company's bribe to the mayor of Lima and falsified records to pay third parties to assist with obtaining government contracts in Brazil, respectively. The Brazilian alleged misconduct brought in approximately $890,000 in profits and the company allegedly brought in approximately $290,000 as a result of its Peruvian subsidiary's campaign finance dealings. The SEC issued its order against WPP for violations of the anti-bribery, books-and-records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA – acknowledging WPP undertook significant remedial actions, including terminating the employment of the individuals involved, and cooperated with the agency's investigation. The SEC ordered WPP to pay disgorgement of $10,114,424.84 and prejudgment interest of $1,110,234.68, together with a civil fine of $8,000,000 – for a total of $19,224,659.54. Finally, in October, the SEC and DOJ announced parallel enforcement actions against Credit Suisse Group AG and its European subsidiary – resulting in a global enforcement action penalty of over $475 million, paid out to U.S. and U.K. authorities. According to the DOJ and SEC, the Swiss bank raised funds for wholly-owned government entities in Mozambique in 2013, and in two subsequent transactions failed to disclose both the level of indebtedness created and financial irregularities for funds from the first syndicated loan. According to authorities, the bank knew that both SOEs were newly formed, had no prior business operations, and were designed to funnel funds to bankers and government officials. In 2016, shortly after news broke of the alleged "secret" debt issued and guaranteed by the Mozambican government, the IMF and other international institutions halted their financial support of the country's waning coffers and the country defaulted on its debt obligations. As its jurisdictional hook, both the DOJ and the SEC cited to the bank having American Depositary Receipts listed on the NYSE and that both the bank and its U.K. subsidiary allegedly used U.S. wires and the U.S. financial system in furtherance of the scheme to defraud international investors. In connection with the alleged misconduct in Mozambique, the bank entered into a DPA with the DOJ and received a cease and desist order from the SEC. As a result, it was required to pay approximately $247 million

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