Brazil: GOL set to pay $41 million to settle bribery probes
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GOL Linhas Aéreas has settled with a U.S. court to pay a fine, after investigations revealed bribery by the airline.
The case has to do with the bribes paid by GOL in 2013 to the former deputy governor of the Federal District, Tadeu Filippell, and the former mayor, Eduardo Cunha, who was in prison and is now a candidate for re-election to Federal Congress. The information emerged with the plea bargain of Henrique Constantino, son of GOL founder Nene Constantino, and one of the airline’s shareholders.
As part of Operation Lava Jato, it was revealed that the company allegedly paid bribes to the politicians cited so that a Bill reducing taxes on Aviation Kerosene would be accelerated and approved in Congress, which occurred in March 2013. As a company listed in the U.S., like Petrobras, GOL responds to U.S. justice, since illegal actions harm American investors.
Now, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), GOL has reached an agreement to pay US$ 41 million dollars (R$ 215 mi) to the Department of Justice itself and also to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to our partner Aeroin, the amount also includes a credit for fines paid by GOL in settlement with the CGU and AGU in Brazil. This «discount» amount is in the order of $1.7 million (R$8.9 million). In all, the company has now paid $17 million and parceled out the rest of the debt, $24 million, over 2 years.
«GOL paid millions in bribes to government officials in Brazil to get in return a law that was beneficial to it. The company entered into fraudulent contracts with suppliers for the purpose of generating and concealing the funds necessary to do this criminal conduct, and falsely reported these transactions in its cashbook. Today’s settlement demonstrates that the Justice Department is committed to going after companies that corrupt government functions for their own gain,» said Kenneth A. Polite Jr.
In a statement to investors, GOL informed that «the external, independent investigation
retained by the Company was completed in April 2017, and the conclusion of this investigation was shared with the relevant authorities, and GOL fully cooperated with all relevant authorities in the United States and Brazil, and none of the Company’s current employees, representatives or members of the Board of Directors or members of Management were aware of any illegal purpose behind any of the identified transactions, or of any illicit benefit to the Company arising from the investigated transactions, and that its external and independent investigation revealed that immaterial payments were made to politically exposed persons.»
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