Davis Polk secured a global foreign bribery resolution for Swedish telecom Telia Company AB and its Uzbek subsidiary, Coscom LLC, regarding allegations that employees of the companies paid approximately $331 million in bribes to enter into the Uzbekistan market. Following the company’s disclosure in September 2016 that it was facing a potential record $1.4 billion settlement, amid an environment of even higher penalties, including monitorships, Davis Polk was hired by Telia.

Telia entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, and its subsidiary Coscom entered a guilty plea to a criminal charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. Parallel proceedings resulted in a civil cease-and-desist order against Telia by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a settlement with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. As a result, the total of all criminal and regulatory penalties arising from resolutions with U.S. and foreign authorities is now approximately $965.7 million. The U.S. criminal penalty reflects a 25% reduction off the bottom of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range and the maximum discount for cooperation and remediation. The Department of Justice also concluded that no independent compliance monitor was warranted and the resolution includes no ongoing self-reporting requirement on the state of the company’s compliance program.  

The Davis Polk team was led by partner Angela T. Burgess, co-head of Davis Polk’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Government Investigations Group, and former partner Greg D. Andres, and assisted by counsel James W. Haldin and Sidney Bashago, and associates Melissa C. King, Juliana N. Murray, Maude Paquin, Nick DiMarino and Anne R. Yearwood.  All members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York office.

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