Honeywell International Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, NC, was a multinational manufacturing and technology company whose shares were registered with the SEC and traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol “HON.” Honeywell operated through three business segments: (i) Aerospace, (ii) Automation and Control Solutions, and (iii) Performance Materials and Technologies. Among Honeywell's wholly-owned subsidiaries were Honeywell UOP, with offices in Des Plaines, IL, and Honeywell S.A. Belgique (“Honeywell Belgium”), with offices in Diegem, Belgium.
According to the documents in this case, Honeywell engaged in bribery schemes in Brazil and Algeria involving its subsidiaries and employees to obtain business from the state-owned oil companies in each country. In Brazil, Honeywell UOP, with the assistance of a Brazilian oil and gas consulting firm, offered as much as $4 million in 2010 to a Brazilian official at the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras to win a contract with the firm. In Algeria, employees and agents of Honeywell Belgium, with the assistance of Monaco-based consulting company Unaoil, paid $75,000 in bribes to an Algerian government official at the Algerian state-owned oil company La Societe Nationale pour la Recherche, La Production, Le Transport, la Transformation, et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures (“Sonatrach”) to secure a contract amendment with the company.
In a settled administrative proceeding announced on December 19, 2022, the SEC ordered Honeywell to cease and desist violations of the antibribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA. Under the terms of the settlement, Honeywell agreed to pay disgorgement of $64,672,563 and prejudgment interest of $16,485,630, for a total of $81,158,193. However, the SEC agreed to credit up to $38,717,216 against that total for disgorgement paid to Brazilian authorities in the parallel proceeding there, and the SEC further agreed not to impose a civil penalty in light of the criminal penalty imposed in the DOJ proceeding. The SEC noted Honeywell's cooperation and remediation.
In a related proceeding, on December 14, 2022, the DOJ filed a single count information under seal in the Southern District of Texas against Honeywell UOP alleging a conspiracy to violate the antibribery provisions of the FCPA. On December 19, 2022, the company, along with parent Honeywell, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ for a term of three years. Under the terms of the settlement, Honeywell UOP agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $79,242,750, which represented a 25 percent reduction off the bottom of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range, plus forfeiture of $105,657,000. Honeywell agreed to three years of self-reporting to the DOJ on the status and implementation of its enhanced anticorruption compliance policies and controls. The DOJ further agreed to credit half of the criminal penalty and all of the forfeiture against payments made in the parallel enforcement actions with the SEC and Brazilian authorities.
