JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- McKinsey Africa, a subsidiary of global consulting firm McKinsey, will pay more than 122 million U.S. dollars to resolve a U.S. investigation into a bribery scheme in South Africa.
According to a statement by the U.S. Justice Department, the company paid bribes to South African government officials between 2012 and 2016 for lucrative contracts worth millions of dollars.
"The scheme was carried out by a senior partner at McKinsey and allowed McKinsey Africa to repeatedly get awarded consulting contracts through corruption and bribes at two different state-owned entities in South Africa," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams noted.
Williams said that his office would continue to clamp down on U.S.-owned businesses that seek to gain unfair advantages through the payment of bribes and involvement in corruption outside the country.
The U.S. Justice Department stated that McKinsey Africa entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the department in connection with criminal information filed in the Southern District of New York. This charges the company with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
According to the Justice Department, a guilty plea by former McKinsey senior partner Vikas Sagar involved in the uncovered bribery scheme was also unsealed, who had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA in December 2022.
The Justice Department said that court documents and admissions showed that McKinsey Africa paid bribes to officials at state-owned companies, including ports operator Transnet and energy company Eskom, for consulting contracts worth millions of dollars. Due to the bribes, the company made profits worth over 85 million dollars, it added. ■
