FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2004 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRM (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division announced today that InVision Technologies, Inc. - a public company based in Newark, California that sells, in domestic and foreign markets, an airport security screening product designed to detect explosives in passenger baggage - has agreed to resolve the criminal liability associated with potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying $800,000 in penalties to the United States and cooperating fully in the parallel investigations by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a separate, related agreement, General Electric Company, which announced today that it had completed its acquisition of InVision, agreed, among other things, to ensure compliance by InVision of InVisions obligations under its agreement and to effect FCPA compliance programs within its new InVision business.
The investigations by the Department and the SEC revealed that InVision, through the conduct of certain employees, was aware of a high probability that its agents or distributors in the Kingdom of Thailand, the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines had paid or offered to pay money to foreign officials or political parties in connection with transactions or proposed transactions for the sale by InVision of its airport security screening machines. The investigations followed the voluntary disclosure to the Department and the SEC by InVision and GE of facts obtained in their internal investigation into the potential FCPA violations.
The key terms of the Departments agreements with InVision and General Electric are as follows: The InVision Agreement The term of the InVision Agreement is two years. In exchange for the Departments agreement not to prosecute InVision for the conduct disclosed by InVision and GE (which assisted InVision in conducting an internal investigation) to the Department and the SEC, InVision agrees, among other things, to: * Accept responsibility for its misconduct, agree that a statement of facts summarizing the subject transactions is materially accurate and agree not to contradict those facts; * Negotiate in good faith a settlement with the SEC; * Pay a monetary penalty to the United States of $800,000; and * Fully and affirmatively disclose to the Department and the SEC activities that InVision believes may violate the FCPA, and continue to cooperate with the Department and the SEC in their investigations.
The GE Agreement The GE Agreement, which has a term of one year, governs the obligations of GE with respect to its InVision business. In exchange for the Departments agreement not to prosecute GE for conduct disclosed by InVision and GE to the Department and the SEC, GE agrees, among other things, to: * Integrate the InVision business into GEs FCPA compliance program and retain an independent consultant acceptable to the Department to evaluate the efficacy of GEs effort in that regard; * Cause the full performance by InVision of the InVision Agreement; * Accept, based on its present factual understandings, that the factual statement in the InVision Agreement describing the subject transactions is materially accurate and refrain from contradicting that statement; and * Fully and affirmatively disclose to the Department and the SEC activities that GE reasonably believes are material to the investigations of the Department and the SEC, and to continue to cooperate in those investigations.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Peter B. Clark, Acting Deputy Chief Mark F. Mendelsohn and Trial Attorney Thomas E. Stevens of the Fraud Section. 04-780
Source: US Department of Justice
