Ralph Lauren Corp. will reportedly pay almost $2 million to resolve U.S. regulatory and criminal claims. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York-based company discovered that one of its international subsidiaries paid bribes to officials in Argentina from 2005 to 2009.
The company reported the misconduct to regulators after discovering it in an internal review, and has since signed a non-prosecution agreement with the SEC to settle the matter and avoid being charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The settlement amount that Ralph Lauren is responsible for includes an $882,000 penalty stemming from a parallel criminal proceedings by the Department of Justice. According to Tom Hanusik, the company’s attorney: “Ralph Lauren did all the right things in this situation: we investigated, reported, cooperated with authorities, conducted a worldwide assessment and implemented a series of remedial measures. The unprecedented use of non-prosecution agreements by both agencies reflect that.”