USA: McKinsey pays fine for corruption in South Africa

An African subsidiary of consulting firm McKinsey & Company Inc. will pay a criminal fine of more than $122 million to end a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a years-long bribery scheme of South African officials, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

The Justice Department says the scheme involved paying bribes to officials at the South African government and the state-controlled agency responsible for ports, railways and pipelines, as well as the state-controlled energy company, in order to secure contracts. This netted McKinsey Africa and its parent company $85 million in profits between 2012 and 2016, officials say.

The Justice Department has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with McKinsey Africa, which will allow the company to avoid prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if it meets certain conditions.

McKinsey said in a statement that it "welcomes the resolution of these matters and closure of this unfortunate situation ." The company said it had cooperated with authorities and had made "significant improvements" to its "risk, legal and compliance controls . "

A former McKinsey executive who pleaded guilty to a federal charge in the case was fired more than seven years ago, shortly after the firm learned of the problems, the company said.

"McKinsey is a very different company today than it was when these events occurred ," the company said.