[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] on Wednesday announced [press release] that a former software executive at SAP SE (SAP) [website], Vincente E. Garcia, agreed to settle charges filed against him for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) [legislative materials] by bribing Panamanian government officials to secure software license deals. Garcia carried out the bribes through an intermediary while he lived in Miami. The SEC investigation revealed a scheme that lasted from 2009 to 2013 and involved paying three government officials in exchange for four contracts that would allow the company to sell SAP software to the Panamanian government. The software sold to the government was discounted up to 82 percent which allowed Garcia to continue to bribe the government officials and take personal “kickbacks” deposited directly into his bank account in the amount of $85,965. The SEC found emails from Garcia’s SAP account that identified the government officials involved and discussed monetary amounts. Garcia agreed to the cease-and-desist order [PDF] issued by the SEC. The US Department of Justice [official website] announced a criminal action against Garcia in addition to the continued investigation by the SEC.

Bribery, insider trading and hacking pose concerns for US security regulators on both international and domestic markets. The SEC On Tuesday indicted [JURIST report] an international web of hackers and traders who stole information from press releases prior to publication and traded on said information, making over $100 million in illegal profits. In April the US Supreme Court denied [JURIST report] an appeal brought by Rajat Gupta, the former director of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc, for his 2012 insider trading conviction. Gupta was convicted [JURIST report] on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in June 2012. The convictions rested largely on telephone conversations between Gupta and Raj Rajaratnam, head of the Galleon Group hedge fund firm where Gupta disclosed financial and investor information of Goldman Sachs. Gupta was sentenced to two years in prison, one of supervised release, and ordered to pay $5 million dollars in fines. Rajaratnam was convicted in 2011 and sentenced [JURIST report] to 11 years in prison and $64 million dollars in fines, the largest sentence to ever be awarded for insider trading. Rajaratam appealed to the Second Circuit in 2013, but the conviction was upheld [JURIST report].