SEC Charges Former Software Executive with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations

The SEC announced that a former executive at a worldwide software manufacturer agreed to settle charges that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") by bribing Panamanian government officials through an intermediary for the purpose of procuring software license sales.

An SEC investigation found that a former vice president of global and strategic accounts for the software company orchestrated a scheme to pay $145,000 in bribes to one government official and promised to pay two others in order to obtain four contracts to sell the company's software to the Panamanian government. The executive caused the software company to sell software to a partner in Panama at discounts of up to 82 percent. The excessive discounts enabled the partner to create a slush fund from its excessive earnings on the other end of the sales and tap that money to pay the bribes to the Panamanian government officials so that the company could sell the software.

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