Goodyear will pay about USD 16 million to settle federal regulators' charges that it failed to prevent persistent bribery in Kenya and Angola aimed at winning tire sales.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement today with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, one of the world's biggest tire makers.
The SEC said Goodyear's subsidiaries in the African countries paid more than USD 3.2 million in bribes to employees of government-owned and private companies, and to local officials.
The agency says that the bribes, paid "routinely" from 2007 through 2011, were hidden in company books by being falsely recorded as legitimate business expenses.
Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The company is turning over about USD 14 million in alleged illicit profits plus USD two million in interest.
