Albemarle Corporation (Albemarle), a specialty chemicals manufacturing company located in Charlotte, North Carolina, agreed to pay more than $218 million to settle FCPA investigations with DOJ and the SEC stemming from bribery payments in Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

Albemarle entered into a three-year non-prosecution agreement (“NPA”) with DOJ and agreed to pay a penalty of approximately $98.2 million and an administrative forfeiture of approximately $98.5 million. 

In its first FCPA settlement applying its Compensation Incentives and Clawbacks Pilot Program announced in March 2023, DOJ agreed to a $763,453 penalty reduction for bonuses that Albemarle withheld from qualifying employees.

In a parallel proceeding, Albemarle agreed to pay approximately $103.6 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.  DOJ agreed to credit approximately $81.9 million to the forfeiture payment against disgorgement Albemarle agreed to pay the SEC.

In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the Albemarle FCPA settlements with the DOJ and the SEC.