Just when you thought the SEC had packed it in until 2010, it filed one last Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case today alleging that telecommunications company UTStarcom, Inc. violated the FCPA by authorizing millions of dollars in unlawful payments to foreign government officials in Asia. The SEC announced that UTStarcom has agreed to settle the SEC's charges and will pay a $1.5 million penalty, as well as a separate $1.5 million fine imposed by the DOJ.

According to the SEC, UTStarcom's wholly-owned subsidiary in China paid nearly $7 million between 2002 and 2007 for hundreds of overseas trips by employees of Chinese government-controlled telecommunications companies that were customers of UTStarcom, purportedly to provide customer training. In reality, the SEC claimed, the trips were entirely or primarily for sightseeing.

The SEC further alleges that UTStarcom:

provided lavish gifts and all-expenses paid executive training programs in the U.S. for existing and potential foreign government customers in China and Thailand;

purported to hire individuals affiliated with foreign government customers to work in the U.S. and provided them with work visas, when in reality the individuals did no work for UTStarcom; and

made improper payments to sham consultants in China and Mongolia while knowing that they would pay bribes to foreign government officials.