(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Japan-based Panasonic Corp. will pay more than $143 million to resolve charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and accounting fraud violations involving its global avionics business.<\/p>\n
According to the SEC\u2019s order, Panasonic\u2019s U.S. subsidiary, Panasonic Avionics Corp. (PAC), a provider of in-flight entertainment and communication systems, offered a lucrative consulting position to a government official at a state-owned airline to induce the official to help PAC in obtaining and retaining business from the airline. At the time it orchestrated the bribery scheme, PAC was negotiating two agreements with the airline valued at more than $700 million. PAC ultimately retained the official and paid approximately $875,000 for a position that required little to no work, using an unrelated third-party vendor to conceal the payments. <\/p>\n
The SEC\u2019s order also found that Panasonic fraudulently overstated pre-tax and net income by prematurely recognizing more than $82 million in revenue for the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2012. The fraud was accomplished by PAC backdating an agreement with the airline and providing misleading information to PAC\u2019s auditor. <\/p>\n
The SEC order further found that Panasonic lacked sufficient internal accounting controls and failed to make and keep accurate books and records in connection with purported consultants retained by PAC, as well as sales agents used to solicit business from state-owned airlines and other customers throughout the Middle East and Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestors rightfully expect that the companies they invest in will not engage in bribery or fraud,\u201d said Antonia Chion, Associate Director of the SEC\u2019s Enforcement Division. \u201cIssuers must implement effective controls for the selection and engagement of consultants and agents to ensure compliance with anti-bribery statutes.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIssuers need to ensure that their rules and controls address the specific bribery and corruption risks they face when operating in global markets with customers that are state-owned entities,\u201d said Charles Cain, Chief of the Enforcement Division\u2019s FCPA Unit. \u201cIt is not enough for a company merely to set up policies and procedures that are not enforced or are easily circumvented by employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panasonic consented to the SEC\u2019s order finding that it violated the anti-bribery, anti-fraud, books and records, internal accounting controls, and reporting provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and ordering it to pay approximately $143 million in disgorgement and pre-judgement interest. In a related matter, the U.S. Department of Justice today announced that PAC would pay a criminal penalty of more than $137 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement related to causing books and records violations of the FCPA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Japan-based Panasonic Corp. will pay more than $143 million to resolve charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and accounting fraud violations involving its global avionics business. According to the SEC\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048,16047],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news","category-insider-trading-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63482,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63480\/revisions\/63482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}