{"id":1150,"date":"2015-08-26T17:38:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T17:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/sap-executive-pleads-guilty-in-bribery-scheme\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T11:09:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T16:09:20","slug":"sap-executive-pleads-guilty-in-bribery-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/sap-executive-pleads-guilty-in-bribery-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"SAP executive pleads guilty in bribery scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former regional director deemed bribes necessary to conduct business<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

Vicente Eduardo Garcia, a former vice president of global and strategic accounts for software company SAP, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act<\/a><\/strong> for his role in helping to secure a multi-million dollar contract with the Panamanian government. The bribes totaled $145,000 and were paid out to two government officials and another individual who channeled money to a third government official.<\/span><\/p>\n

SAP wanted a $14.5 million\u00a0contract with a\u00a0Panama government agency to provide technology services and software. To secure this contracted, Garcia paid bribes to two government officials in Panama and to a another\u00a0person associated with a third government official. They used fraudulent contracts and false invoices to hide the bribery. SAP won the contract and further contracts with the Panamanian government.\u00a0The FBI and the IRS, with help\u00a0from the DOJ\u00a0Criminal Division and the SEC, conducted the investigation.<\/p>\n

The bribery wasn't just for SAP's benefit. Garcia also took kickbacks for himself, according to a separate settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Between December 2011\u00a0and October 2012, Garcia got paid $85,965 in kickbacks.\u00a0Garcia agreed to an SEC penalty of approximately $92,000, which amounted to a\u00a0return\u00a0of the kickbacks he received\u00a0in addition to\u00a0interest.<\/p>\n

Garcia claimed he thought the bribes were \u201cnecessary\u201d in order to secure the lucrative government contracts to upgrade software for the Panamanian government. Garcia admitted to conspiring with other officials at SAP to secure the contracts.\u00a0<\/span>The bribery scheme lasted from 2009 to 2013, during which Garcia circumvented SAP internal controls procedures by falsifying approval forms to justify the large discounts he was providing to his Panamanian partners. The SEC\u2019s investigation reveals Garcia used his business and personal emails, as well as company letter heads to coordinate his illicit activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s sentencing for his criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is scheduled for December 16, 2015. He could face multiple fines and up to five years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former regional director deemed bribes necessary to conduct business Vicente Eduardo Garcia, a former vice president of global and strategic accounts for software company SAP, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his role in helping to secure a multi-million dollar contract with the Panamanian government. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5439,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/5439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}