A US investigation into GlaxoSmithKline has stirred up internal paperwork that the UK drugmaker was looking into compliance violations in its consumer division in 2012. Reuters explains in its report that although the company did not find wrongdoing by GSK or its partners, the US investigation reveals, “scrutiny falling on a part of its China business that had not previously been identified as under the spotlight.” Recent attention on GKS’s China operations has focused on its pharmaceutical division which is unrelated to this new information.
Legal experts tell Reuters that this revelation could increase the likelihood that GlaxoSmithKline could pay millions in fines or as part of a settlement because the investigation is related to the anti-bribery Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Reuters says the US has a history of aggressively enforcing FCPA, “which forbids US-linked companies — including those like GSK that are based elsewhere but have a US stock listing—from bribing government officials while doing business overseas.”
Recent GSK headaches also include allegations of bribery in Syria, Iraq and Jordan.