Eli Lilly settles corrupt foreign practices complaint for $29.4m

The drug company Eli Lilly and Co has agreed to a $29.4m (£18.2m; €22.3m) settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a legal agreement signed on 20 December.1 The 1977 antibribery act made it “unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business.”

The settlement concerns activities by Lilly subsidiaries in Brazil, China, Poland, and Russia, some as early as 1994. Company headquarters learnt of some of the activities but didn’t do enough to halt them.

In Brazil the activities involved …