News - US Securities and Exchange Commission charges global software company SAP SE with bribery schemes in Azerbaijan

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against global software company SAP SE for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of bribery schemes in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan, the SEC informed in a press release.   The company agreed to monetary sanctions of nearly $100 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to settle the SEC’s charges. The SEC’s order finds that SAP, whose American Depositary Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, violated the FCPA by employing third-party intermediaries and consultants from at least December 2014 through January 2022 to pay bribes to government officials to obtain business with public sector customers in the seven countries mentioned above. According to the SEC’s order, SAP inaccurately recorded the bribes as legitimate business expenses in its books and records, despite the fact that certain of the third-party intermediaries could not show that they provided the services for which they had been contracted. The SEC’s order finds that SAP failed to implement sufficient internal accounting controls over the third parties and lacked sufficient entity-level controls over its wholly owned subsidiaries.