Software giant SAP agrees to pay $8 million in penalties to US as it admits violating laws with Iran exports
German software multinational SAP has agreed to pay more than $8 million in penalties as part of a deal to settle complaints it broke US federal law by exporting thousands of products to Iran, the US Department of Justice said.
Federal prosecutors have agreed not to press charges against the global company as part of its deal with the US Justice, Treasury and Commerce departments.
The Justice Department (DOJ) said in a statement on Thursday that the deal it struck with the global software company is the first of its kind.
SAP, which is headquartered in the German town of Walldorf, admitted that it violated laws around exports and US sanctions related to Iran, and agreed to help US authorities with their investigations.
Also on rt.com Will Europe follow China in crackdown on Big Tech monopolies? RT’s Boom Bust investigatesProsecutors allege that the company illegally exported thousands of software products to Iranian firms over at least seven years.
According to DOJ officials, under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, companies can benefit from self-disclosure agreements if they make disclosures before the "imminent threat of disclosure or government investigation".
John Demers, Assistant Attorney General at the DOJ’s National Security Division, said the situation "could have been far worse" for SAP if it hadn't admitted to the illegal exports. "We hope that other businesses, software or otherwise, will heed this lesson," he told reporters on Thursday.
SAP said in a statement it "welcomed" the conclusion of the US investigations and that it "accepts full responsibility for past conduct."
This is not the first time the company has paid financial penalties to US authorities in relation to its foreign business activities. In 2016, the software giant agreed to give up $3.7 million in sales profits after an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission found that an SAP executive had paid $145,000 in bribes to a senior Panamanian government official.
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