The clothing retailer Ralph Lauren has agreed to pay about $1.6 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that it violated a federal law against making illegal payments to foreign officials, the latest case highlighting the government’s aggressive crackdown on overseas bribery by American companies.
Federal prosecutors and securities regulators announced Monday the settlement of actions against Ralph Lauren related to bribes paid to officials in Argentina from 2005 to 2009. The company discovered the misconduct in an internal audit and reported violations of the law, called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, to the government, according to court filings.
Ralph Lauren signed two nonprosecution agreements to settle the actions, which were brought by the United States attorney in Brooklyn and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company agreed to pay penalties of about $882,000 to the Justice Department and about $735,000 to the S.E.C.
S.E.C. officials went out of their way to praise Ralph Lauren for its assistance in the investigation. George S. Canellos, who was named the commission’s co-head of enforcement on Monday, said that the nonprosecution agreement showed that the S.E.C. “will confer substantial and tangible benefits†on assisting the government in foreign-bribery cases. It is the first such agreement that the commission has entered into involving the anti-foreign bribery laws.
“When you do all the right things in terms of investigating, self-reporting, cooperating, and taking appropriate remedial measures, both the S.E.C. and Department of Justice are willing to reward that behavior,†said Thomas A. Hanusik, a lawyer at Crowell & Moring who represented Ralph Lauren.
Enforcement of the once-obscure Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a Watergate-era law that sat dormant for decades, has become a priority in Washington as American companies have expanded inexorably across the globe. Wal-Mart, for instance, is under investigation for possible violations of the law related to potential bribery in its Mexican operations, and the retail giant has disclosed that it is also conducting an internal inquiry into its businesses in Brazil, China, and India.
Last November, in an effort to clarify the foreign anti-corruption laws, the government issued a 120-page “resource guide†to help companies comply with the act. Business groups have railed against the law, criticizing it for chilling overseas business expansion and failing to provide companies with bright-line rules for how to conduct itself overseas. Foreign companies doing business in the United States, as well as those listed on American stock exchanges, also must comply with the statute.
Several lawmakers have criticized the Justice Department for not doing enough to enforce the law. Specifically, they argue that there are not enough prosecutions of individual executives. Most foreign bribery cases, including the latest one involving Ralph Lauren, are brought only against the companies. Critics say that the corporate fines are insufficient to deter such acts and are simply added to the cost of doing business overseas.
The problems at Ralph Lauren centered on misconduct at its Argentina subsidiary, which over a four-year period paid customs officials about $593,000 in bribes to import the company’s goods into the country. The illegal payments allowed the company to avoid customs inspections and related paperwork. A number of Argentine government officials were also given gifts, including the company’s coveted Ricky handbag, which today retails for as much as $22,500.
The bribes, said the company in a statement, were “wholly inconsistent with the culture of compliance and integrity that we have worked diligently to establish.â€
Ralph Lauren has since closed its operations in Argentina, which has unusually strict import controls and is considered a difficult place for American corporations to do business. Federal regulators have brought several anti-bribery actions in recent years against companies doing business in Argentina, including the oil companies B.J. Services and Helmerich & Payne.
