On September 13, Jun Ping Zhang (Ping), the former Chairman and CEO of a subsidiary of Harris Corporation, a Florida-based provider of information technology services to government and commercial markets, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $46,000 to settle the SEC’s allegations that Ping violated the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA. The matter was resolved by an administrative cease and desist order and Ping did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings.

The allegations relate to actions taken in 2011 and 2012 by Ping, a U.S. resident and citizen, and various unnamed sales staff of Harris Corp.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Hunan CareFx Information Technology, LLC (CareFx China). Ping and the sales staff were alleged to have provided illegal gifts to Chinese government officials to obtain and retain business with various state-owned hospitals and regional Departments of Health. The settlement did not allege personal enrichment and contained no order of disgorgement.

The investigation giving rise to the allegations was spawned in fall 2012 when Harris Corp., notified the SEC and DOJ that it had identified potential violations of the FCPA during a post-acquisition audit of CareFx Corporation, which it had acquired in April 2011. With the assistance of outside counsel, Harris Corp. conducted an internal investigation into the conduct of CareFx China, a Chinese legal entity and wholly-owned subsidiary of CareFx, which began selling electronic medical records software to state-owned hospitals and regional Departments of Health in late 2009. The allegations contained within the administrative order depict an ongoing scheme in which CareFx China sales staff under Ping’s management and with his knowledge submitted bogus expenses for cash reimbursement and then used that cash to pay for improper gifts to government officials for the purposes of influencing their decisions to purchase CareFx China’s products and services.

According to the SEC, from April 2011 to April 2012, Ping “directly authorized or indirectly allowed between $200,000 and $1,000,000 in improper gifts to government officials,” after which CareFx China was awarded over $9,600,000 in contracts with state-owned entities. As CareFx China’s books and records were consolidated into Harris Corp.’s financial statements following the CareFx acquisition in April 2011, Ping, who had responsibility for reviewing CareFx China’s monthly expense report summaries, knew that the improperly recorded expenses and illegal activity would not be properly disclosed to Harris Corp., nor were they disclosed in the pre-acquisition due diligence.

According to a September 4, 2012 Wall Street Journal blog post, Harris Corp., concurrent with its internal investigation and timely self-disclosure in 2012, took remedial actions in relation to CareFx China, including making changes to internal control procedures, ending its gift-giving practice, providing additional compliance training, and terminating certain employees. Shortly thereafter, according to the SEC order, Harris Corp. sold all of CareFx China’s “outward facing operations” and, in mid-2015, Harris Corp. terminated all employees in CareFx China and no longer maintains China-based business operations.