Hewlett-Packard pays US$58.8m for bribing Russian officials

A US judge has ordered computer giant Hewlett-Packard to pay US$58.8 million for bribing Moscow government officials to win huge contract with Russia's prosecutor general's office.

Judge Lowell Jensen on Thursday hit HP with the fine after the company pleaded guilty to violating anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United States Department of Justice said.

According to a negotiated plea bargain, executives in an HP Russia subsidiary created a multi-million-dollar slush fund, from which money was used to bribe Russian officials who awarded the company a US$45 million contract with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia.

"Hewlett Packard's Russia subsidiary used millions of dollars in bribes from a secret slush fund to secure a lucrative government contract," said assistant attorney general Marshall Miller of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"Even more troubling was that the government contract up for sale was with Russia's top prosecutor's office."

The plea deal came as part of an agreement by HP in April to pay US$108 million to settle investigations that it paid bribes to win public contracts in Russia, Poland and Mexico.