UOP LLC, doing business as Honeywell UOP, a US-based subsidiary of Honeywell International, has agreed to pay more than $160 million to resolve parallel bribery investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the United States and Brazil stemming from bribe payments offered to a high-ranking official at Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company.
Between 2010 and 2014, Honeywell UOP conspired to offer an approximately $4 million bribe to a then-high-ranking Petrobras executive in connection with Honeywell UOP’s efforts to win an approximately $425 million contract from Petrobras to design and build the ‘Premium’ oil refinery.
In exchange for the bribe, and after obtaining business advantages including inside information and secret assistance from the Petrobras executive, Honeywell UOP won the contract and earned approximately $105.5 million in profits from the from what the US Department of Justice described as ‘corruptly obtained business’.
The DoJ reports that Honeywell ‘promptly engaged in extensive remedial measures’ terminating and disciplining employees involved in the misconduct and strengthening its compliance program. As a result, the criminal penalty calculated under the US Sentencing Guidelines reflects a 25% reduction off the bottom of the applicable guidelines fine range. More on the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts here.
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