The Department of Justice has been relatively quiet this year in announcing corporate FCPA enforcement actions and settlements.  Aside from the Ericsson breach of its Deferred Prosecution Agreement, the Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) and Grupo Aval settlement is the first in 2023 involving a corporate FCPA resolution.  For the SEC, the Corfico and Grupo Aval settlement is the sixth corporate resolution in 2023.

Corfico and its parent Grupo Aval agreed to pay $80 million to resolve DOJ and SEC enforcement actions stemming from their involvement in a bribery scheme in Colombia.

Corfico entered into a three-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement (“DPA”) with DOJ in exchange for a payment of $40.6 million. DOJ credited half of the criminal penalty Corfico already paid Colombia’s prosecuting agency, Superintendencia de Industria y Comerico.  This was DOJ’s first coordinated FCPA settlement with Colombian authorities. Corfico agreed to pay the SEC roughly $40 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.