Smith & Nephew settles bribery charge for $22.2m

Smith & Nephew Plc, Europe’s biggest maker of artificial hips and knees, has agreed to pay $22.2 million (€16.9m) to settle allegations by the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that it engaged in a scheme to pay bribes in Greece.

Smith & Nephew admitted in filings yesterday in federal court in Washington that two of its units were involved in a scheme for more than a decade to make “illicit payments” to doctors employed by government hospitals or agencies in Greece contra to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The London-based company, which entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US, agreed to pay a $16.8m fine to settle the criminal allegations and another $5.4m to settle a civil suit filed by the SEC.

“Smith & Nephew’s subsidiaries chose a path of corruption rather than fair and honest competition,” Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s FCPA unit, said in a statement. “The SEC will continue to hold companies liable as we investigate the medical device industry for this type of illegal behavior.”

If convicted Smith & Nephew could have been excluded from participating in US healthcare programmes, prosecutors said.

They said they’ll seek to have the charges dismissed after three years if Smith & Nephew abides by its agreement to hire a corporate monitor and cooperate with any bribe probes.

— Bloomberg