Rolls-Royce PLC was a publicly traded U.K. holding company with major business operations in the civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine, and energy sectors worldwide.
Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. ("RRESI"), headquartered in Ohio, was an indirect subsidiary of Rolls-Royce which produced and supplied gas turbines, compressors, and aftermarket products and services for oil and gas and power generation projects worldwide.
From about 2000 to about 2013, Rolls-Royce and RRESI made over $35 million in commission payments to commercial advisors and other intermediaries in Thailand, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Angola, Iraq, and elsewhere, knowing that the commission payments would be used to bribe foreign officials in those countries in order to obtain business for Rolls-Royce and RRESI.
On December 20, 2016, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Southern District of Ohio against Rolls-Royce PLC alleging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On the same date, the company entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the DOJ. Under the terms of the agreement, Rolls-Royce accepted responsibility for the misconduct and agreed to pay a criminal monetary penalty of $169,917,710, of which $30 million will be paid to the Consumer Financial Fraud Fund. Rolls-Royce also agreed to report on the status of the enhancement and implementation of its anti-corruption compliance policies and procedures for a term of three years. The $169.9 million fine represented a 25% downward departure from the minimum fine under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines plus a credit of $25,579,179 for the penalty it paid Brazilian authorities in a parallel action.
Rolls-Royce separately agreed to pay a penalty to the U.K. Serious Fraud Office of £497,252,645 ($604,808,392) for corrupt payments made in connection with the company's Civil Aerospace, Defence Aerospace, and Energy business operations in Indonesia, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia, and India.
