The
Alfred C. Toepfer subsidiary of Archer, Daniel Midlands (ADM) of Decatur, Ill.,
bribed its way to $33 million worth of profits in the Ukraine.
Now
ADM has been forced to return those profits plus $3.5 million in interest and
to pay a fine of $17.8 million imposed by the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission.
“ADM's subsidiaries sought to gain a tax
benefit by bribing government officials, and then attempted to deliberately
conceal their conduct by funneling payments through local vendors,'' said
acting assistant attorney general Mythili Raman in a news release.
“`ADM, in turn, failed to implement
sufficient policies and procedures to prevent the bribe payments, although
ultimately ADM disclosed the conduct, co-operated with the government, and
instituted extensive remedial efforts,” the news release from the U.S. Justice
Department said.'
About $22 million in bribes were made
between 2002 and 2008 to receive more than $100 million in refunds on Ukrainian
value-added taxes on locally-purchased goods, according to the Justice
Department and SEC.
Purchasers could apply for refunds if
those good were then exported, but the Ukrainian government sometimes delayed
those refunds or didn't make them at all.
ADM's controls were ``lacklustre,'' said Gerald Hodgkins, an associate
director at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Patricia Woertz, chief executive officer
for ADM, said the company disclosed the bribes to federal officials in 2009.
