Justice officials say that from 2005 to 2010, Northeast Ohio-based Diebold lavished cash and luxury gifts on officials and banking customers in Russia, Indonesia, and China.
Leisure travel was recorded as “training” while third parties were brought in to disguise bribes between Diebold and its partners…all to get the company’s ATMs into overseas banks.
“That’s not allowed under the law and Diebold’s gonna have to pay a steep price for that,” says U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio. He says Diebold violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
“The Department of Justice has - and will - continue to investigate and prosecute these kinds of cases," says Dettelbach. "We cannot have a situation where a law – which has been in place for 40 years – that make it unlawful to bribe foreign officials in exchange for business -- isn’t followed.”
Dettlebach says Diebold executives themselves alerted federal authorities to the crooked dealings.
He says an independent monitor will set up shop at Diebold to make sure it complies with the settlement terms, and if it does, the Justice Department will eventually dismiss the criminal information against Diebold.
A Diebold spokesman says the company acknowledges responsibility, and that the settlement agreement is an “important step for the company moving forward.”