A&O Shearman FCPA Digest | United States v. Diebold, Inc. (N.D. Ohio 2013)

Source Documents

Foreign Official
Employees and officials of state-owned banks in China and Indonesia (also employees of private bank customers in Russia).

Nature of Business
Diebold, Inc., an Ohio company, is a global provider of automated teller machines and bank security systems.

Influence to be Obtained
According to the criminal Information filed by the DOJ, Diebold repeatedly provided payments, gifts, and non-business travel for employees of state-owned and controlled banks in China and Indonesia to secure and retain business with those banks. Diebold attempted to disguise the payments and benefits through various means, including by making payments through third parties designated by the banks and by inaccurately recording leisure trips for bank employees as “training.”

Diebold also created and entered into false contracts with a distributor in Russia for services that the distributor was not performing. The distributor, in turn, used the funds to pay bribes to employees of Diebold’s privately-owned bank customers in Russia to obtain and retain contracts with those customers.

Enforcement
On October 22, 2013, Diebold entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ under which it agreed to pay a $25.2 million penalty for violations of the anti-bribery and books-and-records provisions of the FCPA. In addition to the monetary penalty, Diebold agreed to retain a compliance monitor for at least 18 months, with self-reporting to follow for the remaining duration of the deferred prosecution agreement.