Mining giant BHP Billiton has been hit with a US$25m ($32m) fine for breaches of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by treating foreign officials to trips to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US said BHP paid for travel and luxury hotel accommodation for 60 government officials and their spouses, mostly from Africa and Asia, to attend the Beijing Games, violating the Act.
“BHP Billiton footed the bill for foreign government officials to attend the Olympics while they were in a position to help the company with its business or regulatory endeavours,” SEC enforcement division director Andrew Ceresney said.
“BHP Billiton recognised that inviting government officials to the Olympics created a heightened risk of violating anti-corruption laws, yet the company failed to implement sufficient internal controls to address that heightened risk.”
The mining giant agreed to the SEC’s fine to settle the case without admitting or denying the findings, and its chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, said the company had learnt from the experience.
The Australian federal police are still investigating the matter, and BHP said it would continue to cooperate with that process.
“Our company has learned from this experience and is better and stronger as a result,” Mackenzie said.
The SEC said BHP had invited a total of 176 government and state enterprise officials to attend the Olympics at its expense.
Ultimately, 60 took up the offer, with spouses and others joining them, and received Olympics event tickets, lodging and sightseeing trips worth between US$12,000 and US$16,000 each, according to the SEC.