The German company SAP SE, which was accused of bribing government officials at least in seven countries including Azerbaijan, claimed to violate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A multinational software company – SAP Se, was charged by The U.S. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 10, 2024 according to the official press release.
According to the accusation, besides Azerbaijan the company bribed government officials in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia as well.
Press release says that, between December of 2014 and January of 2022 “SAP employed third-party intermediaries and consultants to bribe government officials to obtain business with public sector customers in the seven countries.” However, the company “inaccurately recorded the bribes as legitimate business expenses in its books and records”.
What is SAP, and who did it bribe in Azerbaijan?
The multinational company sells software licenses and related services to 263,000 customers in 188 countries. It was registered in Azerbaijan as SAP AZ LLC in 2015 February, with 324 000 AZN capital (approximately 308 000 USD).
In Azerbaijan, the case involved a contract worth more than US$1.6 million between SAP and the state-owned oil giant SOCAR, according to the SEC order. In an effort to close the deal, the order says, an employee of a SAP subsidiary, SAP Azerbaijan, provided “improper gifts” on Dec. 9, 2021, and in January of 2022 to multiple SOCAR officials.
“Several SOCAR officials received gifts totaling approximately $3,000, well above SAP’s gift limit of $30.” the order states. “Text messages indicate that the employee was rewarding senior officials who supported, and were directly responsible for, approving the pending sale.”
According to the US court documents, the SAP Azerbaijan employee also submitted fake documentation to SAP indicating the deal with SOCAR had closed on Feb. 4, 2022, when in reality it closed three months later on May 12. The change was made so that the employee could collect a commission on the deal before being promoted to “SAP Azerbaijan Managing Director”, the documents state. Upon promotion, “she would not be eligible to earn additional compensation from the sale.”
Who is the generous managing director?
While the US documents did not name the woman, in April of 2022 an Azerbaijani business news site announced that Svetlana Yankina had been named managing director of SAP’s Azerbaijani office, which corresponds with official Azerbaijani tax registry records identifying her as “legal representative”. She remained in that position until November 2022.
According to her LinkedIn account, from April of 2015 until her appointment as managing director of SAP’s Azeri office, she was also a “global account director” responsible at SAP for SOCAR.
“I have good experience for adding value to the operations, maintenance and projects of SOCAR operated assets,” she wrote. “Based on the world trends in [the oil and gas] industry together with SOCAR we are going on the road named ‘Digital Transformation’, which will allow the company to quickly change the mainstream to follow trends.”
Approached by OCCRP reporters, Yankina refused to comment, saying she left the company more than a year ago. SOCAR also didn’t respond to questions.
Chief Executive Officer of SAP SE Bill McDermott met with president Ilham Aliyev in Davos, in January 2019, and the CEO presented his book to the president. President Ilham Aliyev praised the cooperation with SAP SE.
“The company`s cooperation with relevant Azerbaijani authorities has contributed to developing the economy, increasing transparency and creating new jobs in the country.” – Aliyev emphasised.
What is the response of the company on accusation?
In a statement, the company said it had fully cooperated with the investigators, noting, “SAP has zero tolerance for those who do not adhere to the company’s compliance policies and procedures. SAP remains vigilant in maintaining the highest standards of ethics and compliance.”
The company agreed to pay more than $220 million to settle the bribery charges.
It is not the first time SAP has been charged in a bribery case. In 2016, SEC charged SAP with “books and records and international accounting controls violations in connection with a bribery scheme in Panama.”
