SEC Charges Consumer Loan Company With FCPA Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that World Acceptance Corporation, a South Carolina-based consumer loan company, has agreed to pay $21.7 million to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The SEC’s order finds that from at least December 2010 through June 2017, World Acceptance Corporation’s former Mexican subsidiary, WAC de Mexico S.A. de C.V., paid more than $4 million in bribes to Mexican government officials and union officials to secure the ability to make loans to government employees and ensure that those loans were repaid in a timely manner. According to the SEC’s order, WAC Mexico paid the bribes in a variety of ways, including by depositing money into bank accounts linked to the officials and by hiring an intermediary to distribute large bags of cash among the officials.