Federal Prosecutor’s Office
Bern, 02.12.2022 – The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPC) is closing the criminal investigation once morest ABB. In particular, he issues a penal order for a violation of s. 102 par. 2 CP in conjunction with Art. 322septies CP and condemns the company to a fine of 4 million Swiss francs. This Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission should also close the procedure in the same context. South African law enforcement authorities issued a fine yesterday.
ABB Management Services SA, headquartered in Switzerland, admitted in the criminal order that it had failed to take all reasonable and necessary organizational measures to prevent the payment of bribes to public officials foreigners in South Africa. In concrete terms, various ABB employees have developed, from 2013, a system of corruption in order to obtain, in the form of overvalued payments to subcontractors, orders related to the construction of a coal-fired power plant. in South Africa. In this way, ABB South Africa obtained, with bribe payments of at least 1.3 million Swiss francs, orders worth at least 200 million dollars.
The MPC thus condemns ABB Management Services SA to a fine of 4 million Swiss francs. The maximum legal fine possible in Switzerland for this type of criminal offense is 5 million Swiss francs. ABB’s cooperation was taken into account to reduce the fine. No compensatory claim is due, because ABB had already paid compensation of 104 million dollars to South Africa in 2020. The MPC also puts the procedural costs at 50,000 Swiss francs. at the expense of ABB Management Services SA.
The MPC thanks the Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Mannheim Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA) for their excellent collaboration.
Address for sending questions
Communication from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, info@ba.admin.ch, T +41 58 464 32 40
Auteur
http://www.ba.admin.ch/ba/fr/home.html
