Och-Ziff hedge fund to pay $413M over Africa bribery

NEW YORK CITY: Hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group will pay $413 million to settle charges it Republic of the Congo, Libya and other African countries, officials said on Thursday (Friday in Manila).

Och-Ziff, which has more than $39 billion under management, paid rights and to win investment in the company from a Libyan sovereign Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company passed millions of Libya’s fallen dictator Moamer

- to the SEC. Its Africa unit also entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit foreign bribery.

The company will be subject to the oversight of an outside compliance monitor for three years.

“Och-Ziff engaged in complicated, far-reaching schemes to get special and profits through corruption,” Andrew Ceresney, the SEC’s head of the enforcement, said in a statement.

- a hedge fund had been held to account under US foreign bribery laws.

Under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is illegal for US companies and citizens to pay bribes to - like similar laws in other developed countries, the US law is enforced by both criminal authorities and market regulators.

Joel Frank, 61, also agreed to settle civil charges brought by the SEC, which accused the men of ignor transactions to proceed.

SEC case while Frank has agreed to cooperate in the continuing investigation and any penalties against him will be assessed later, according to the SEC.

In a statement, Och expressed regret.

“This has been a deeply disappointing episode,” he said. “This conduct is inconsistent with our core values and not representative of our hundreds of employees worldwide, who are dedicated to serving our clients with the utmost integrity.”

He added that the company had taken steps to improve its conduct.

Och was personally involved in the bribery, according to the SEC, authorizing two corrupt transactions in the

The case gained additional notoriety last month when federal agents in Brooklyn detained Samuel Mebiame, a Gabonese consultant to an Och-Ziff joint venture who was arrested on charges of paying bribes to win mineral rights in three African countries.

In addition to bribery in Libya corruption-tainted transactions in Chad, Niger and Guinea.

In a conference call with reporters, the SEC’s Ceresney said the Och-Ziff matter had arisen from a so-called enforcement “sweep” be industry’s dealings with sovereign wealth funds.