ADM Names Global Chief Compliance Officer Following FCPA Settlement

Food processing giant Archer Daniels Midland Company has named Ben Bard vice president and global chief compliance officer, effective Jan. 20, 2014.

Bard's appointment follows just weeks after the company agreed to pay a total of $54.3 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice to settle civil and criminal charges over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

As global chief compliance officer, Bard will be responsible for ADM's Office of Compliance and will oversee the company's compliance policies and programs. This includes the code of conduct, ethics helpline, global anti-corruption program, trade compliance, antitrust and competition law, data protection, privacy, and conflict of interest policies.

Bard joins ADM after seven years at The Coca-Cola Company. As the principal ethics and compliance counsel within Coca-Cola's global ethics and compliance office, he managed programs covering global trade sanctions, anti-corruption, third-party-integrity, due diligence and conflicts of interest. Prior to his time at Coca-Cola, Bard worked in a variety of compliance and risk management roles for Capital One Financial.

Bribery Details

On Dec. 20, Alfred C. Toepfer International Ukraine (ACTI Ukraine), a subsidiary of ADM, pleaded guilty in the Central District of Illinois and agreed to pay $17.8 million in criminal fines to resolve charges that it paid bribes through vendors to Ukrainian government officials to obtain value-added tax (VAT) refunds in violation of the FCPA.

In a parallel action, ADM also agreed to pay $36.5 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the SEC. The final judgment also permanently enjoins ADM from violating those sections of the Exchange Act, and requires the company to report on its FCPA compliance efforts for a three-year period. 

According to the charges, from 2002 to 2008, ACTI Ukraine, a trader and seller of commodities, together with Alfred C. Toepfer International (ACTI Hamburg), another subsidiary of ADM, paid third-party vendors to pass on bribes to Ukrainian government officials to obtain VAT refunds. In total, ACTI Ukraine and ACTI Hamburg paid roughly $22 million to two vendors, nearly all of which was to be passed on to Ukrainian government officials to obtain over $100 million in VAT refunds, resulting in a benefit to ACTI Ukraine and ACTI Hamburg of roughly $41 million.

In addition to the monetary penalty, ADM and ACTI Ukraine also agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department; to periodically report the companies' compliance efforts; and to continue implementing enhanced compliance programs and internal controls designed to prevent and detect FCPA violations.