Spanish phone giant Telefónica to pay $85M to resolve US probe of Venezuelan bribery scheme
Spain’s largest telecommunications operator will pay more than $85 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a scheme to bribe Venezuelan officials with a lavish Caribbean vacation and expensive watches
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spain's largest telecommunications operator will pay more than $85 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a scheme to bribe Venezuelan officials with a lavish Caribbean vacation and expensive watches.
The agreement with Telefónica S.A. announced Friday is the second time that the telco giant has faced bribery accusations in the U.S. after it was ordered in 2019 to pay a $4.1 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for providing tickets to the FIFA World Cup for foreign officials it was seeking to influence.
The latest bribery scheme started around 2014, when a subsidiary of Telefónica bribed two Venezuelan officials to participate in an auction that allowed it to get U.S. dollars in exchange for Venezuelan bolivars, Justice Department officials said.
Telefónica's Venezuelan subsidiary bought equipment at inflated prices from unnamed multinational equipment suppliers, who through intermediaries then paid the bribes on its behalf in an attempt to hide the illegal scheme, prosecutors said.
