Brazil airline Gol to pay $41m to resolve US, Brazil bribery probes

Brazil airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes will pay more than $41m to resolve parallel bribery investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the United States and Brazil, US authorities said on Thursday. Gol entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department in connection with criminal information filed in Maryland charging the company with conspiracy to violate anti-bribery legislation, the department said. The US Securities and Exchange Commission said that Gol had agreed to pay $70m to settle charges against it. However, due to Gol's "inability to pay the fines in full, the SEC and the (Justice Department) waived payment of all but $24.5m and $17m", it added. Gol will pay around $3.4m in additional fines to Brazilian authorities, the SEC said. The airline agreed with the Justice Department to pay more than $87m to settle criminal charges, the SEC added. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, of the Justice Department's criminal division, said Gol had "paid millions of dollars in bribes to foreign officials in Brazil in exchange for the passage of legislation that was beneficial to the airline." Polite added that Gol had "entered into fraudulent contracts with third-party vendors for the purpose of generating and concealing the funds necessary to perpetrate this criminal conduct, and then falsely recorded the sham payments in their own books."<br/>