Stryker, a publicly traded medical technology company, has been charged with bribing officials in five countries as part of a crackdown by the SEC under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Stryker, which specializes in making orthopedic devices, has agreed to pay more than $13.2 mn to settle charges stemming from an SEC investigation that found the company bribed doctors and other state employees in Argentina, Greece, Mexico, Poland and Romania in order to win business. The company didn’t admit or deny the allegations.
‘Stryker’s misconduct involved hundreds of improper payments over a number of years during which the company’s internal controls were fatally flawed,’ says Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York regional office. ‘Companies that allow corruption to occur by failing to implement robust compliance programs will not be allowed to profit from their misconduct.’
The charge is the second in a week under the FCPA. On October 22, ATM manufacturer Diebold was charged with bribing bank officials in China, Russia and Indonesia. It was forced to give up $22.9 mn in illegal profits and pay a fine of $25.2 mn in a related criminal case.
The SEC says that, since at least 2003, Stryker paid bribes of $2.2 mn to officials in the five countries and made illicit profits of $7.5 mn as a result.
The commission says the company donated $200,000 to a pet project of a doctor in Greece to win a contract, paid a bribe of $46,000 to a Mexican state employee – making it look like a legal expense, and paid for a trip to New York and Aruba for the director of a public hospital in Poland and his wife.
Joe Cooper, Stryker’s director of global communications, says in an email to the Wall Street Journal that the company has enhanced its anti-corruption compliance campaign. Cooper adds the Justice Department has now closed its investigation.
