Goodyear settles African bribery charges

Goodyear will pay about $16 million to settle federal regulators’ charges that it failed to prevent persistent bribery in Kenya and Angola aimed at winning tire sales. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Tuesday with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., one of the world’s biggest tire makers. The SEC said Goodyear’s subsidiaries in the African countries paid more than $3.2 million in bribes to employees of governmentowned and private companies, and to local officials. The agency says that the bribes, paid “routinely” from 2007 through 2011, were hidden in company books by being falsely recorded as legitimate business expenses. Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The company is turning over about $14 million in alleged illicit profits plus $2 million in interest.