Bank in Hong Kong Agrees to Pay $47 Million Criminal Penalty for Hiring Scheme That Violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
WASHINGTON – Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited (Credit Suisse Hong Kong or CSHK), a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group AG (Credit Suisse or CSAG), a Swiss-based issuer of publicly traded securities in the United States, has agreed to pay a $47 million criminal penalty for its role in a scheme to corruptly win banking business by awarding employment to friends and family of Chinese officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
CSHK entered into a non-prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $47,029,916 to resolve the matter. As part of the agreement, CSHK and its parent company Credit Suisse AG also agreed to continue to cooperate with the Department in any ongoing investigations and prosecutions relating to the conduct, to enhance their compliance programs, and to report to the Department on the implementation of their enhanced compliance programs. The Department reached this resolution based on a number of factors, including that CSHK did not voluntarily and timely disclose the conduct at issue. CSHK received partial credit for its and its parent company’s cooperation with the criminal investigation, including making foreign-based employees available for interviews in the United States and producing documents to the government from foreign countries in ways that did not implicate foreign data privacy laws. However, CSHK did not receive additional cooperation credit because its cooperation was reactive and not proactive. Additionally, CSHK did not receive full credit for remediation because it failed to sufficiently discipline employees who were involved in the misconduct. Based on these considerations, the company received a non-prosecution agreement and an aggregate discount of 15 percent off of the bottom of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines fine range.
In related proceedings, Credit Suisse Group AG also settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under the terms of its resolution with the SEC, Credit Suisse Group AG agreed to a total of $24,989,843 in disgorgement of profits and $4,833,961 in prejudgment interest.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/credit-suisse-s-investment-bank-hong-kong-agrees-pay-47-million-criminal-penalty-hiring