McKinsey & Company Africa To Pay Over $122M In Connection With Bribery Of South African Government Officials

McKinsey and Company Africa (Pty) Ltd (McKinsey Africa), which operates in South Africa as a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of international consulting firm McKinsey & Company Inc. (McKinsey), will pay over $122 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to pay bribes to government officials in South Africa between 2012 and 2016. The guilty plea of a former McKinsey senior partner who participated in the bribery scheme was also unsealed. The Justice Department’s resolution is coordinated with prosecutorial authorities in South Africa.McKinsey Africa entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the department in connection with a criminal information filed in the Southern District of New York charging the company with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Vikas Sagar, a former senior partner of McKinsey who worked in McKinsey Africa’s South Africa office, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.According to court documents and admissions, McKinsey Africa, acting through a senior partner and for the benefit of McKinsey, agreed to pay bribes to then-officials at Transnet SOC Ltd. (Transnet), South Africa’s state-owned and state-controlled custodian of ports, rails,...