Honeywell International Inc. ("Honeywell"), 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.”
UOP, LLC d/b/a Honeywell UOP was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell based in Des Plaines, IL that was a global provider of technology to various industries, including petroleum refining, gas processing, and petrochemical production.
According to the documents in this case, between 2010 and 2014, Honeywell UOP conspired to offer an approximately $4 million bribe to a then-high-ranking executive of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A - Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil company in order to win an approximately $425 million contract with Petrobras to design and build an oil refinery. Honeywell UOP used a Brazilian sales agent to fund and pay the bribe. In all, Honeywell UOP earned approximately $105.5 million in profits from the contract.
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. The DOJ noted Honeywell's cooperation and remediation but did not give the company credit for voluntarily reporting the misconduct.
In a related 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. The SEC noted Honeywell's cooperation and remediation.
