GSK GSK plc

By Samuel Rubenfeld 

The U.K. closed corruption investigations into GlaxoSmithKline PLC and individuals at subsidiaries of Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC.

"There is either insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction or it is not in the public interest to bring a prosecution in these cases," Serious Fraud Office Director Lisa Osofsky said Friday in a statement.

GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange that it was pleased with the decision. Rolls-Royce said it wouldn't comment beyond noting the news.

The SFO launched its probe into GlaxoSmithKline in 2014, looking at the pharmaceutical giant's operations in a number of countries, including China. Last year, the SFO had requested additional information on the company's use of third-party advisers.

Authorities in China had found the drugmaker's local subsidiary guilty of bribery and imposed a $491.5 million fine in September 2014. GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $20 million to U.S. securities regulators to settle civil charges that it had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The U.S. Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges.

In the Rolls-Royce case, the SFO had reached a deferred-prosecution agreement in January 2017 with Rolls-Royce PLC and Rolls-Royce Energy Systems Inc., which are units of the parent company. The agreement came as part of a global settlement with U.S., U.K. and Brazilian authorities in which Rolls-Royce agreed to pay $809 million.

Rolls-Royce had agreed as part of the U.K. settlement to cooperate with an investigation into the conduct, as well as any potential prosecution, of individuals. The SFO said Friday that its investigation into individuals, which continued after the corporate settlement, was over, citing a review of the available evidence and an assessment of the public interest in a prosecution.

Ms. Osofsky noted in the statement that the company had taken responsibility for corrupt conduct spanning seven countries and three business sectors over the course of three decades.

Rolls-Royce continues to comply with the terms of the deferred-prosecution agreement, the company and the SFO said in statements.

Anticorruption groups condemned the SFO's decision. Robert Barrington, executive director of Transparency International UK, questioned whether the agency should have offered the company a deferred-prosecution agreement, saying the case could send the message that such deals are a soft option for companies caught engaging in serious corruption.

"It is hard to believe that the interests of justice have been served, or that there has been proper acknowledgment of the victims of the crime, " he said.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at samuel.rubenfeld@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2019 17:13 ET (22:13 GMT)

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