Olympus Corporation (“Olympus”), a Japanese corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, manufactured and distributed commercial photographic equipment and specialized medical imaging and surgical equipment, including endoscopes and microscopes.
Olympus Corporation of the Americas (“OCA”), a New York corporation headquartered in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, distributed Olympus’ products in the Americas.
Olympus Latin America, Inc. (“OLA”), a Delaware corporation headquartered in Miami, Florida, was a majority owned subsidiary of OCA and distributed Olympus’ medical imaging equipment in the Caribbean and Latin America. OLA's customers included both government and private entities, and OLA typically worked with third-party distributors in sales to those customers.
Olympus Optical do Brasil Ltda. (“OBL”), a Brazilian corporation headquartered in Sao Paolo, Brazil, was a majority owned subsidiary of OLA, which distributed Olympus medical imaging and surgical equipment in Brazil. OBL was supervised and managed by OLA.
From 2006 through about August 2011, OLA’s senior management instituted a plan to make improper payments and gifts to certain health care practitioners (“HCPs”) employed at government-owned and private health care facilities in Central and South America in order to influence those facilities's decisions to purchase Olympus equipment or to prevent the purchase of competitors' products. The improper payments took the form of cash, money transfers, non-business related travel, free or heavily discounted equipment, and other things of value. In total during that time, OLA made at least $2,999,560 in hundreds of unlawful payments and recognized at least $7,556,566 in profits as a result of its unlawful payments.
On March 1, 2016, OLA and OCA entered into a three-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the DOJ. Under the terms of the DPA, OLA agreed to pay a monetary fine of $22.8 million. OLA received credit of 20% for its cooperation, including conducting an extensive internal investigation, translating documents as necessary, and collecting, analyzing, and organizing voluminous evidence and information for the Offices. OLA and OCA also agreed to hire an independent monitor for a term of three years to report to the DOJ on the status of OLA and OCA's implementation of enhanced anti-corruption compliance policies and procedures.
The improper payments were brought to the attention of the government by a whistleblower, John Slowik, who was a former compliance officer for Olympus. Slowik filed a federal lawsuit under the qui tam or "whistleblower" provisions of the False Claims Act, which allows private persons to file lawsuits against individuals and businesses that have defrauded the federal government and to get a share of any recovery received by the government. Slowik will receive $51 million for his part in the Olympus prosecution, which is one of the largest whistleblower awards in history.
OCA was also the subject of a related investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey into allegations that the company violated the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute and the U.S. False Claims Act. The DOJ and OCA settled, resolving the parallel criminal and civil investigations, and OCA agreed to pay $612 million plus interest.
