On August 28, 2009, the SEC filed a settled enforcement action in federal court in D.C. against Oscar H. Meza, formerly the Director of Asia-Pacific Sales for Faro Technologies, Inc. The SEC alleged that Meza authorized bribery payments to employees of Chinese state-owned companies in order to obtain contracts, and that in order to conceal the bribes Meza instructed that account entries be altered.
The SEC charged Meza under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), among other things. It claimed that his actions resulted in Faro-China’s payment of $444,492 in bribes during the period 2004 through 2006, generating approximately $4.5 million in sales and approximately $1.4 million in net profit.
