| Boston Consulting Group has admitted it paid millions of dollars in bribes to win business in Angola, and agreed to give up more than $US14 million in profits from contracts it won with the country’s economy ministry and central bank.
The bribes were paid by BCG through its office in Lisbon, Portugal, between about 2011 and 2017, the DoJ said. Despite finding evidence that the activities breached the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the DoJ said it would not prosecute BCG because the firm reported the matter itself, fired those involved and co-operated with the inquiry.
“Certain BCG employees in Portugal took steps to conceal the nature of the agent’s work for BCG when internal questions arose, including by backdating contracts and falsifying the agent’s purported work product,” the DoJ said. BCG won 11 contracts with the Angolan Ministry of Economy and one with the National Bank of Angola over the years in question, bringing in $US22.5 million in revenue. The firm will return the $US14.4 million in profits that the contracts generated.