Two Chinese Executives Charged With FCPA Violations
Two Chinese citizens were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after bribing Chinese officials, the Justice Department said Nov. 14. Yanliang Li and Hongwei Yang, who held leadership positions at a Chinese subsidiary of an “international multi-level marketing company,” paid bribes to retain operating licenses in China and to suppress government investigations and negative media reports about their company, the agency said.
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Between 2007 and 2017 Li, Yang and others bribed Chinese officials to retain licenses for their company “to operate as a direct-selling enterprise” in Chinese provinces, the agency said, and to “influence Chinese governmental investigations” into the company’s compliance with Chinese laws. Yang and Li also allegedly bribed state-owned media. To pay for the bribes, they submitted false expense reports to their company for reimbursement, which avoided the company’s “internal accounting controls,” the Justice Department said.