A US Justice Department settlement with Embraer is once again a popular subject in the Dominican media, as the press highlighted similarities between the Embraer and Odebrecht cases. Both Embraer and Odebrecht are large Brazilian companies.
More than three months after news of the settlement was released in the United States, the local press has begun to report that Brazilian firm Embraer agreed to pay more than US$107 million to the United States to resolve the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges. In addition, parallel rulings of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Brazilian authorities totaling US$97 million in fines were also announced in October 2016.
The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer agreed to the settlement, estimated to be more than US$107 million,that detailed criminal charges against the company, including connections with schemes involving the bribery of government officials in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia and Mozambique. Embraer also had to pay millions of dollars in fees and fees in a case in India in which the company falsely recorded payments via a sham agency agreement.
The US Justice Department revealed that in 2008, Embraer paid US$3.52 million to an influential government official in the Dominican Republic via a false agency agreement to secure a contract to sell the Dominican Air Force eight military aircraft for approximately US$92 million.
With the cooperation of U.S. authorities, Brazilian authorities have charged 11 individuals for their alleged involvement in Embraer’s misconduct in the Dominican Republic.
The FBI’s Miami Field Office investigated the case. Senior Trial Attorney Jason Linder and Trial Attorney John-Alex Romano of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
In the case, Air Force colonel Carlos Piccini Núnez is under pre-trial custody, and former Minister of Defense Pedro Rafael Peña Antonio was released with the obligation to be available for the judiciary. Businessmen Daniel Aquino Mendez and Daniel Aquino Hernández have electronic bracelets and impediment to leave the country.
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US Justice
20 January 2017
