Kinross Gold Charged With FCPA Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a settled action against Canada-based Kinross Gold Corporation for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations arising from the company’s repeated failure to implement adequate accounting controls of two African subsidiaries. According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, Kinross Gold acquired the African subsidiaries in a $7.1 billion transaction in 2010, understanding that the subsidiaries lacked anti-corruption compliance programs and internal accounting controls. It took Kinross Gold almost three years to implement adequate controls, despite multiple internal audits flagging widespread deficiencies. Even after implementing the controls, Kinross Gold failed to maintain them.