Archer Daniels Midland Company Inc. has agreed to pay more than $54 million in civil and criminal penalties to settle charges stemming from bribes its foreign subsidiaries paid between 2002 and 2008 to Ukrainian government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ADM was represented by Williams & Connolly, and ADM’s affiliate Alfred C. Toepfer International was represented by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.
According to the complaint filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, ADM’s Ukranian subsidiaries paid about $22 million to third-party vendors who, in turn, passed on nearly all that money to Ukrainian officials to get the company more than $100 million in value added tax (VAT) refunds. The company agreed to pay more than $36 million to settle the SEC’s charges that it violated the record-keeping and internal controls requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The settlement is subject to judicial approval. According to the docket, the case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Harold Baker in Urbana, Ill.
