Las Vegas Sands To Pay $7 Mln Penalty To Resolve US Criminal Bribery Case

(RTTNews) - Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), a Nevada-based gaming and resort company, agreed to pay a $6.96 million criminal penalty to resolve the government's investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with business transactions in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Macao, the U.S. Justice Department said.

According to admissions by Sands made in connection with the resolution, certain Sands executives knowingly and willfully failed to implement a system of internal accounting controls to adequately ensure the legitimacy of payments to a business consultant who assisted Sands in promoting its brand in Macao and the PRC, and to prevent the false recording of those payments in its books and records. Sands continued to make payments to the consultant despite warnings from its finance staff and an outside auditor that the business consultant had failed to account for portions of these funds. In addition, Sands terminated the finance department employee who raised concerns about the payments.

In total, from 2006 through 2009, Sands paid about $5.8 million to the business consultant without any discernable legitimate business purpose, it admitted.

Sands entered into a non-prosecution agreement and has agreed to continue to cooperate with the department in any ongoing investigations and prosecutions relating to the conduct described in the agreement, including of individuals, to enhance its compliance program, and to report to the department on the implementation of its enhanced compliance program.