On 5th June, Bloomberg carried a quote saying that the 50/50 split between the countries, shows the US desire to have France be part of the anti-bribery fight. The article says that US authorities haven’t been shy in fining foreign companies — especially French ones. By contrast French regulators have been notoriously slow and ineffective in their pursuit of international corruption. Societe Generale – France’s second-biggest bank – paid bribes through a broker to secure the investments from various Libyan state institutions, according to the bank’s admissions detailed in a statement from the DoJ. In total, SocGen paid the Libyan intermediary more than $90 million. As a result of the scheme, the bank obtained investments and one restructuring that earned it profits of approximately $523 million, the DoJ said.
