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A senior politician in the Thaksin Shinawatra administration has been implicated in a multi-million-dollar bribery case involving the makers of Johnnie Walker whisky.
Liquor giant Diageo will pay US authorities more than $16 million to settle charges that it bribed officials in India, Thailand and South Korea, US officials and the company said Wednesday.
London-based Diageo and its subsidiaries paid over $2.7 million in bribes for more than six years to obtain tax and sales benefits for Johnnie Walker whiskey and other brands, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said.
"For years, Diageo's subsidiaries made hundreds of illicit payments to foreign government officials," Scott Friestad, associate director of the SEC's enforcement division, said in a statement.
From 2003 to 2009, the company paid more than $1.7 million to hundreds of Indian government officials responsible for either purchasing or authorizing the sale of its beverages in India, the SEC said.
In Thailand, Diageo paid approximately $600,000 to a high-ranking government official from 2004 to 2008 so he would lobby on the company's behalf in various tax and customs disputes, the SEC said.
In Thailand, from 2004 through mid-2008, Diageo paid approximately $12,000 per month – totaling nearly $600,000 – to retain the consulting services of a Thai government and political party official. This official lobbied extensively on Diageo’s behalf in connection with multi-million dollar pending tax and customs disputes, contributing to Diageo’s receipt of certain favorable dispositions by the Thai government. - From the SEC report
Click to get: full text of the SEC report (PDF format). http://sec.gov/li...-64978.pdf
And in South Korea, Diageo paid a customs official 100 million won ($86,000) for helping the company get a tax rebate, while paying travel and entertainment expenses to officials involved in tax negotiations with Diageo. http://www.bangko...d-of-graft
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