Medical device company Biomet will once again pay tens of millions of dollars to settle violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
In 2012, Biomet agreed to pay more than $22 million to settle allegations it violated the FCPA by bribing public doctors in Argentina, Brazil and China for nearly a decade.
This week, Biomet agreed to pay $30.5 million for interacting with a known prohibited distributor in Brazil and using a third-party customs broker to pay bribes to Mexican customs officials to smuggle in unregistered and mislabeled dental products, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Biomet didn’t entirely learn its lesson the first time around as it continued to use a prohibited agent in Brazil and engaged in a new bribery scheme in Mexico,” said Kara Brockmeyer, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit.
As part of the 2012 settlement, the company agreed to retain an independent compliance consultant. A year later, it was discovered that Biomet and subsidiaries were continuing to violate the FCPA. The settlement announced on Thursday resolves those additional violations
Biomet, which was acquired by Zimmer Holdings in 2015 and renamed Zimmer Biomet, will enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement under the terms of the latest settlement. Biomet’s $30.5 million settlement also included fines for failing to implement adequate internal controls at its Mexican subsidiary, despite several red flags that were raised by employees.