Controversial agri-chemical company Monsanto has agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties to settle US criminal and civil charges for bribing an Indonesian government official and concealing the payment as consulting fees.
The agrochemical company said it accepted full responsibility for the improper activities and regretted that people working on behalf of Monsanto engaged in such behaviour.
The settlements were reached with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Justice Department said Monsanto was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for making an illegal payment of $50,000 to a senior official in Indonesia's Ministry of the Environment in 2002 and falsely certifying the bribe as "consultant fees" on the company's books and records.
Monsanto agreed to pay a $1 million penalty, adopt internal compliance measures, and cooperate with continuing criminal and civil investigations.
An "independent compliance expert" will audit and keep watch on Monsanto's compliance program, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The St. Louis-based company also agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle SEC charges for the $50,000 bribe and related violations.
Some of the payments were for buying land and building a house in the name of the wife of a senior Ministry of Agriculture official, the SEC said.
A former US-based Monsanto senior manager directed an Indonesian consulting firm to make the $50,000 bribe to a senior official in the Ministry of the Environment to get him to repeal a requirement for an environmental impact study the company needed before it could cultivate genetically modified crops, the Justice Department said.
The Indonesian official, however, did not authorise repeal of the environmental study requirement.