SNY Sanofi

By Samuel Rubenfeld 

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi agreed to pay $25.2 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that its subsidiaries made bribery payments to win business.

The schemes spanned multiple countries and involved bribes to government procurement officials and health-care providers to receive tenders and increase prescriptions of the company's products, the SEC said.

The payments violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribes of foreign officials for business purposes, the SEC said.

Sanofi has strengthened its compliance program in the wake of the investigation, Olivier Brandicourt, the company's chief executive, said in a statement. "We will continue to strengthen internal controls, antibribery and corruption compliance programs, and our oversight and training of teams world-wide," he said.

The company neither admits nor denies the SEC's allegations. It agreed to a cease-and-desist order and agreed to pay $17.5 million in disgorgement, $2.7 in interest and a $5 million civil penalty.

Earlier this year, the company said that the Justice Department had ended its yearslong investigation into potential FCPA violations by Sanofi.

The probe began after the company received a series of anonymous allegations that wrongdoing had occurred between 2007 and 2012 in parts of the Middle East and East Africa, the company said in 2014. In subsequent annual reports, the company had said alleged wrongdoing may have happened as recently as 2015.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at samuel.rubenfeld@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 04, 2018 13:33 ET (17:33 GMT)

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