Rolls Royce agrees to pay USD 808 million to settle bribery charges

Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce has agreed to pay USD 808 million to settle bribery and corruption charges brought by authorities in the US, the UK and Brazil as it admitted to paying bribes in connection with its business operations in China, India and other countries.

As part of the deal, Rolls-Royce will pay USD 170 m (141 million pound) to the US Justice Department.

The aerospace firm will pay USD 604 million (497 million pounds) plus costs to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which started investigating claims in 2012 of wrongdoing overseas.

A further settlement would see it pay USD 26 million (21.5 million pounds) to Brazilian regulators, it added.

“As part of its resolution with the Serious Fraud Office, Rolls-Royce entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) and admitted to paying additional bribes or failing to prevent bribery payments in connection with Rolls-Royce’s business operations in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand between in or around 1989 and in or around 2013, and Rolls-Royce agreed to pay a total fine of $497,252,645 (USD 604,808,392),” US Justice Department said.

Rolls-Royce also agreed to pay a penalty of approximately USD 25,579,170 for the company’s role in a conspiracy to bribe foreign officials in Brazil between 2005 and 2008.

Because the conduct underlying the Brazilian Ministerio Pblico Federal (MPF) resolution overlaps with the conduct underlying part of the department’s resolution, the department credited the USD 25,579,170 that Rolls-Royce agreed to pay in Brazil against the total fine in the United States.

Therefore, the total amount to be paid to the United States is USD 169,917,710, and the total amount of penalties that Rolls-Royce has agreed to pay is more than USD 800 million, it said.