SEC Charges Canadian Clean Fuel Technology Company and Former CEO with FCPA Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Westport Fuels Systems, Inc., a Canadian clean fuel technology company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and its former chief executive officer, Nancy Gougarty, of Leesville, South Carolina, have agreed to pay more than $4.1 million to resolve charges that they violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to a foreign government official in China. According to the SEC's order, beginning no later than 2016, Westport, acting through Gougarty and others, engaged in a scheme to bribe a Chinese government official to obtain business and a cash dividend payment by transferring shares of stock in Westport's Chinese joint venture to a Chinese private equity fund in which the government official held a financial interest.