On March 19, the DOJ announced that Marubeni Corporation had entered a guilty plea and will pay a criminal fine of $88 million in connection with violations of the FCPA. As noted by then-Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman, “this is one of only a handful of parent-level guilty pleas in an FCPA prosecution” by the DOJ, due to the “extremely serious” criminal conduct of Marubeni. According to court filings, Marubeni participated in a seven-year scheme to pay and conceal bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia in order to obtain a $118 million power project. To conceal the bribes, Marubeni and its consortium partner retained two third-party “consultants” to make the payments. Marubeni, through employees and others, caused funds to be wired to the consultants’ bank accounts for the purpose of making payments to government officials in Indonesia. In all, nearly $2.3 million was paid to the consultants’ U.S.-based bank accounts for this purpose.
Marubeni pled guilty to seven counts of violating the FCPA’s anti-bribery prohibition, and one count of conspiring to violate the FCPA. Two employees of Marubeni’s consortium partner also entered guilty pleas. In addition, the DOJ filed charges against two other former employees of the consortium partner. Marubeni’s plea agreement is subject to approval by the federal district court, and sentencing has been scheduled for May 2014. United States v. Marubeni Corporation, 14 Cr. 52 (JBA) (D. Conn.)