“Awarding prestigious employment opportunities to unqualified individuals in order to influence government officials is corruption, plain and simple,” Leslie Caldwell, chief of the US Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.
Over a seven-year period, between 2006 and 2013, the bank hired about 200 interns and full-time employees at the request of clients in the region, including nearly 100 referred by government officials at 20 different state-owned businesses in China, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which was part of the settlement.
The Chinese firms then entered into transactions earning the bank more than $100 million in revenue, according to the SEC.
Since 1977, the United States has criminalized bribing foreign officials to win business under a statute known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Enforcement of the law has broadened in recent years, with authorities in Washington extending their reach to more industries and scrutinizing a greater range of business practices.