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Pfizer has agreed to pay the federal government $60 million to settle allegations that its employees bribed doctors and other foreign officials in Europe and Asia to win business and boost sales.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that Pfizer's overseas subsidiaries made illegal payments to health care officials in China, Italy, Russia, Croatia and other Eastern European countries. As early as 2001, Pfizer sales representatives tried to conceal the bribes by recording them
According to a draft agreement approved by the Greek cabinet late on Thursday, Siemens will pay Greece 90 million euros in cash, invest another 100 million euros in its Greek subsidiary Siemens Hellas and write off 80 million euros of claims against the Greek state, a ministry statement said.
Siemens may also invest a further 60 million euros in Greece to set up a factory employing more than 700 people, according to the statement. The deal is subject to parliamentary approval.
Siemens declined to comment.
One former Greek minister has admitted he accepted money for his party from Siemens in the late 1990s. Three managers of Siemens's Greek subsidiary, including its then-chief executive Michalis Christoforakos, were charged but slipped abroad and avoided the Greek authorities' grasp. In 2009, Germany's Constitutional Court rejected a Greek extradition request for Christoforakos
The company encouraged sales reps in the US to mis-sell three drugs to doctors and lavished hospitality and kickbacks on those who agreed to write extra prescriptions, including trips to resorts in Bermuda, Jamaica and California.
The company admitted corporate misconduct over the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin and asthma drug Advair.
Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I dont' understand.
WHY IN THE WORLD IS THERE A "SETTLEMENT" FOR CRIMES?
People shoudl be going to jail, not paying fines to get out of it.
Very very frustrating...
~Tenth
corporate crimes are generally dealt with by civil and administrative law, with penalties such as fines but not prison.
((Bold is mine))
The settlement includes alleged violations by Wyeth, the New Jersey-based drugmaker which Pfizer acquired in 2009. As part of the action, Pfizer's HCP subsidiary agreed to pay $15 million to resolve similar bribery allegations with the Department of Justice. In addition to the settlement fee, the Pfizer unit agreed to a two-year deferred prosecution agreement.
New York-based Pfizer first disclosed the misconduct to SEC and Justice Department officials in October 2004, and cooperated with the government's investigation. Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company by sales, neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
Originally posted by MagicWand67
Pretty disgusting but not very surprising.
You all know Pfizer owns Monsanto right?
PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY, INC., a subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc (“Pfizer”) today (Sept. 2009) pled guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, for misbranding the drug, Bextra, with the intent to defraud or mislead. PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY, INC. admitted to its criminal conduct in the promotion of Bextra and, in the plea agreement, agreed to pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY, INC. also agreed to forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1,300,000,000.
Prior to Sept. 1, 1997, a corporation that was then known as Monsanto Company (Former Monsanto) operated an agricultural products business (the Ag Business), a pharmaceuticals and nutrition business (the Pharmaceuticals Business) and a chemical products business (the Chemicals Business). Former Monsanto is today known as Pharmacia. Pharmacia is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., which together with its subsidiaries operates the Pharmaceuticals Business. Today’s Monsanto includes the operations, assets and liabilities that were previously the Ag Business. Today’s Solutia comprises the operations, assets and liabilities that were previously the Chemicals Business. The following table sets forth a chronology of events that resulted in the formation of Monsanto, Pharmacia and Solutia as three separate and distinct corporations, and it provides a brief background on the relationships among these corporations.