Embraer Uses Sleight-of-Hand Payments to Third-Party Agents to Sell Planes Around the World, Landing It More Than $200M in U.S. Fines

Embraer, one of Brazil’s leading exporters and the world’s largest manufacturer of mid-size jets, has settled bribery allegations with both the SEC and DOJ related to its use of third-party agents in transactions spanning the globe. According to Karlis Novickis, a regional compliance officer at Whirlpool LatAm based in São Paolo, the fines in this case show that compliance “is one of the best investments” a company can make. In this article, we synthesize the SEC and DOJ’s divergent papers to provide a coherent narrative of how Embraer employees skirted the company’s internal controls. In a companion article in a future issue, we will look at the compliance and enforcement implications of the settlement. See “Regional Risk Spotlight: Giovanni Falcetta of TozziniFreire Talks Anti-Corruption in Brazil Beyond the Petrobras Scandal” (Mar. 23, 2016). 

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