Liberty Mutual in first US bribery settlement since Trump freeze ended

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Liberty Mutual will give up $4.7 million in profit to settle a U.S. criminal bribery probe into an Indian subsidiary, in the Department of Justice’s first public enforcement action of a federal anti-bribery law it resumed enforcing in June.

In a letter made public on Monday, the Justice Department said the subsidiary, Liberty General Insurance, paid $1.47 million in bribes to six state-owned banks, which in exchange referred customers to its insurance products.

Liberty’s scheme ran from 2017 to 2022 and resulted in $9.2 million in revenue and the $4.7 million in profit, the letter said.

The Justice Department said the settlement reflected Liberty’s acceptance of responsibility, cooperation including its March 2024 disclosure of the misconduct, and compliance upgrades.

In February, U.S. President Donald Trump halted enforcement of the anti-bribery law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, saying its overuse denied a level playing field to U.S. companies, harming economic competitiveness and national security.

The Justice Department restarted enforcement with a scaled-back approach focused on misconduct that hurts U.S. competitiveness, involves key infrastructure, and is tied to cartels or transnational criminal groups.

Liberty’s settlement is fairly small. A wide range of multinational companies have been prosecuted under the anti-bribery law, including Goldman Sachs and Sweden’s Ericsson.

In a statement, Liberty said it was pleased the Justice Department “acknowledged our proactive approach and affirmed our commitment to integrity and compliance across our global enterprise.”

Bloomberg News reported the settlement earlier on Monday.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Daniel Wallis)