ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS
On April 23, the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation ("D&B"), a New Jerseybased provider of business information, submitted an Offer of Settlement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), resulting in an administrative CeaseandDesist Order resolving the government's investigation of alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Specifically, the SEC's enforcement action alleges that, from 2006 through 2012, subsidiaries of D&B made improper payments in order to obtain or retain business. The first subsidiary is D&B's Chinabased Dun & Bradstreet International Consultant (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. ("D&B China"). In 2006, D&B China formed a joint venture with Huaxia International Credit Consulting Co. Limited ("Huaxia") called "HDBC." According to the SEC's enforcement action, until mid2012, HDBC continued Huaxia's practice of utilizing third parties to make improper payments to officials within China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) to acquire business information that would not otherwise have been publicly available.
Separately, the SEC's enforcement action also alleges that D&B's Chinese subsidiary, Roadway, which it acquired in 2009, utilized independent vendors to collect data on Chinese citizens later sold for directmarketing purposes. The SEC further alleges that D&B failed to adequately conduct due diligence on the business practices of the independent vendors to ensure that these vendors complied with the FCPA.
As part of the resolution, D&B has agreed to pay a civil monetary payment of $2 million, disgorge $6,077,820 in illgotten profits and pay $1,143,664 in prejudgment interest (for a total of approximately $9.2 million). The SEC specifically noted that the penalty took into consideration D&B's having voluntarily disclosed alleged improper conduct, as well as cooperating fully with the SEC in its investigation and taking appropriate remedial actions.
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