SEC Charges Herbalife With FCPA Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has agreed to pay more than $67 million to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced that Herbalife will pay a criminal fine of more than $55 million for a total of more than $123 million paid in both actions. The SEC’s order finds that Herbalife’s Chinese subsidiaries made payments and provided meals, gifts, and other benefits to Chinese officials in connection with obtaining sales licenses, curtailing government investigations of Herbalife China, and removing negative coverage of Herbalife China in state-owned media.