Chattanooga Times Free Press

Brewer to pay $6 million to settle charges by U.S. regulators,

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WASHINGTON — AnheuserBu­sch InBev will pay $6 million to settle charges by U.S. regulators that a joint venture in India paid off government officials to boost sales and production, then tried to quiet an employee who raised the issue.

The joint venture in which AB InBev had a 49 percent interest used third-party sales promoters to make payments to Indian officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.

The law is typically used to prevent bribery.

AB InBev must, for two years, cooperate with the SEC and notify some former employees they are not prohibited from contacting the SEC about possible violations, according to the settlement.

The company entered into a separation agreement with the whistleblo­wing employee that included non-disclosure and a “substantia­l financial penalty” for violating the agreement, according to the SEC.

Despite repeated complaints from employees, AB InBev, now based in Leuven, Belgium, had inadequate internal accounting controls to detect and prevent the payments, the SEC said.

“Anheuser-Busch InBev recorded improper payments by its sales promoters in India as legitimate expenses in its financial accounting, and then exacerbate­d the problem by including language in a separation agreement that chilled an employee from communicat­ing with the SEC,” said Kara Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC Enforcemen­t Division’s FCPA Unit.

AB InBev said the violations came several years before it began independen­t operations in India in 2015, and that it subsequent­ly trained its Indian employees on compliance.

The settlement arrived on the same day SABMiller, which makes Fosters and Miller beer, announced its shareholde­rs had approved a $103 billion takeover by AB InBev.

Shareholde­r approval was the last major hurdle in a deal that will give the combined company control of almost a third of the global beer market.

“Anheuser-Busch InBev recorded improper payments by its sales promoters in India as legitimate expenses in its financial accounting, and then exacerbate­d the problem by including language in a separation agreement that chilled an employee from communicat­ing with the SEC.”

– KARA BROCKMEYER, CHIEF OF THE SEC ENFORCEMEN­T DIVISION’S FCPA UNIT

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