Law360 (September 22, 2020) — A Florida asphalt company will pay $16.6 million in connection with an agreement to plead guilty to paying bribes to state-owned oil companies in South America in exchange for access to government contracts, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Tuesday.
South Florida-based Sargeant Marine Inc. agreed to shell out the eight-figure sum to resolve charges that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with various, multi-year bribe schemes in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Seth DuCharme, the acting head of the Brooklyn federal prosecutors’ office, highlighted the international cooperation that aided the advancement of the case.
«We will continue to investigate and prosecute any company that corrupts foreign government officials in order to gain a competitive edge, as well as any of their executives and employees who participate in those efforts,» DuCharme said in the release.
