UPDATE Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) will pay an additional fine of $206.7 million as part of a resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) regarding non-criminal breaches of its 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). Under the agreement, Ericsson will enter a guilty plea regarding previously deferred charges relating to conduct prior to 2017, which will bring the 2019 DPA to an end.
In 2019, Ericsson entered into the DPA to resolve previously disclosed Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations relating to conduct in several countries between 2010 and 2016. In the 2019 DPA, Ericsson agreed to pay more than $1 billion to resolve probes into alleged corruption, including the bribing of government officials, according to Reuters. The DoJ said the bribery took place over many years in countries including China, Vietnam and Djibouti.
As previously announced in October 2021 and March 2022, however, the DoJ notified Ericsson that it had failed to provide documents and information to the DoJ in a timely manner and had not adequately reported to the DoJ information relating to a 2019 Iraq-related internal investigation. Under the DPA, the DoJ has the sole discretion to determine that the company has breached its obligations, and if it makes this determination, it has the ability to prosecute the company for the past misconduct covered under the DPA. As a result, the company entered a guilty plea for the violations to which it previously admitted as part of the DPA.
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