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GE to pay $23.4M to settle charges subsidiaries paid kickbacks
BY STEPHEN MANNING The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — General Electric Co. will pay $23.4 million to settle federal charges that some of its subsidiaries paid illegal kickbacks to the Iraqi government in order to win contracts under a U.N. program.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint fi led Tuesday in federal court that GE subsidiaries gave cash, computers, medical supplies and other goods worth $3.6 million to the Iraqi health and oil ministries from 2000 to 2003.
The SEC alleged the kickbacks were in return for contracts to supply medical and water purification equipment under the United Nations’ oil-for-food program, which provided humanitarian aid to prewar Iraq.
Cheryl Scarboro, head of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit, said GE “failed to maintain adequate internal controls to detect and prevent these illicit payments.”
GE agreed to pay a $1 million penalty and give up about $22.5 million in profi t and interest earned from the transactions. The company does not admit or deny wrongdoing under the settlement. GE also said that the Department of Justice has closed its own investigation into the matter.
“This conduct does not meet our standards, and we believe that it is in the best interests of GE and its shareholders to resolve this matter now,” the company said in a statement. ...................>>>>......................>>>>....................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00604&AppName=1 |
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