HP fined for bribing Russians

The Hewlett-Packard offices in Meyrin, near Geneva.

The Hewlett-Packard offices in Meyrin, near Geneva.

Published Sep 12, 2014

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San Francisco -

A judge on Thursday ordered US computer giant Hewlett-Packard to pay $58.8 million for bribing Russian government officials to win a big-money contract with the prosecutor general's office in that nation.

Northern California US District Judge Lowell Jensen hit HP with the fine after the company pleaded guilty to violating anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the US Department of Justice said in a release.

According to a negotiated plea bargain, executives in an HP Russia subsidiary created a multi-million-dollar slush fund, from which money was used to bribe Russian officials who awarded the company a $45 million contract with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia.

“Hewlett Packard's Russia subsidiary used millions of dollars in bribes from a secret slush fund to secure a lucrative government contract,” principal deputy assistant attorney general Marshall Miller of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said in a release.

“Even more troubling was that the government contract up for sale was with Russia's top prosecutor's office,” he said. - Sapa-AFP

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