World s largest firm alleged for bribing a million dollar to Indian government officials

Latest Updated on 9 January 2023

The largest advertising company in the world WPP plc will pay more than $19 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve claims of a number of violations including that one of its businesses paid Indian government officials in exchange for advertising contracts.

The US markets watchdog said the bribery scheme happened at a WPP majority-owned subsidiary in India, which through intermediaries paid as much as a million dollars in bribes to Indian officials to win and keep government business. The watchdog issued an order after accepting WPP's offer to settle the matter.

WPP was wrongly profited by $5,669,596 as a result of the bribery schemes at the India subsidiary, the watchdog claimed in an order released on Friday.

Also mentioned was the fact that WPP's companies in China, Brazil, and Peru profited from other illegal schemes.

WPP agreed to stop breaking the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's anti-bribery, books-and-records, and internal financial controls provisions according to the SEC without accepting or contesting its findings (FCPA). It must pay an $8 million fine $10.1 million in disgorgement and $1.1 million in prejudgment interest.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India and Brazil's Comisso de Valores Mobilários have also been of assistance to the SEC. In today's currency, $19 million is equal to more than Rs 140 crore.

The corporation had an aggressive growth strategy that included taking out the major stake in several small-scale advertising companies in risk areas.

The US regulator claims that WPP failed to make sure that these subsidiaries applied the business's internal financial controls and compliance policies, instead allowing the acquired companies' founders and CEOs to operate with a great deal of autonomy and power.

Last Updated on 25 September 2021

WPP, a British Multinational Company has agreed to pay the settlement fee of more than $19 million against the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged with bribery. Although the company neither denied nor accepted any of the charges, paying the fee to settle the case indicates that they might be guilty of the charges SEC had put against the company. After Amazon, this is the second case alleging a foreign company for bribing the Indian official. A subsidiary of WPP has been alleged to have paid close to a million dollars to government officials in SEC report. This issue is getting out of hand and bribing Indian officials is sounding like normal activity. The government has to investigate the culprits and stricken their policy if they really want a corruption-free India.