- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2024-11-11T17:09:00
A subsidiary of Spanish telecommunications provider Telefónica S.A. will pay $85.2 million to settle a charge that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when it paid bribes to Venezuelan officials to gain preferential access to a currency auction.
Telefónica Venezolana has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, the DOJ said Friday in a press release. As part of the DPA, Telefónica Venezolana will hire a chief compliance officer, invest in additional compliance resources, and establish risk assessment and audit processes. Telefónica S.A. and Telefónica Venezolana will also report on the progress of its remediation to the DOJ.
The DOJ alleged that Telefónica Venezolana paid approximately $29 million to two suppliers, funds that were intended to be paid as bribes in the form of a “commission” to Venezuelan officials. With the preferential treatment, Telefónica Venezolana was allowed to exchange Venezuelan bolivars into about $110 million in U.S. dollars in 2014. The DOJ said the exchange of Telefónica Venezolana’s bolivars represented about 65 percent of all funds that the government allowed to be exchanged into U.S. dollars that year.
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