HP Says U.S. Sought Russian Data in Bribery Probe

U.S. prosecutors and regulators examining whether Hewlett-Packard Co. engaged in bribery overseas asked the company for data on Russian transactions dating to 2000, HP disclosed today in a regulatory filing.

The Justice Department and U.S. Securities Exchange Commission joined a probe by the German Public Prosecutor’s Office into whether HP, the largest personal computer and printer maker, engaged in bribery, according to the filing.

German prosecutors are investigating whether current and former HP employees engaged in bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion relating to a 35 million-euro ($44.5 million) transaction between a former company subsidiary in Germany and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, the filing said.

“The U.S. enforcement authorities have recently requested information from HP relating to certain governmental and quasi- governmental transactions in Russia and in the Commonwealth of Independent States subregion dating back to 2000,” according to the filing.

The Justice Department and SEC enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery statute.

HP, based in Palo Alto, California, is “fully cooperating with the investigating authorities, who have focused their investigations primarily on a transaction between an HP subsidiary and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation and who have now expanded their investigations beyond that particular transaction,” company spokeswoman Gina Tyler said in an e-mailed statement.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net.

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