Liberty Mutual Insurance To Pay US$4.7mn To Settle Bribery Probe Involving Indian Subsidiary
Moneylife Digital Team 13 August 2025
The US department of justice (DoJ) has declined to prosecute Liberty Mutual Insurance Company for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), despite finding evidence that employees of its Indian subsidiary, Liberty General Insurance (LGI), paid US$1.47mn (million) in bribes to officials at six state-owned banks in India between 2017 and 2022. Under the agreement with the DoJ, Liberty Mutual will disgorge US$4.69mn, the full profit from the scheme, as part of a resolution that allows the company to avoid criminal charges.
 
According to the DoJ’s letter agreement, the illicit payments were made to secure customer referrals to LGI’s insurance products. The scheme generated approximately US$9.2mn in revenue and US$4.7mn in profits for the insurer. Employees allegedly disguised the bribes as marketing expenses and used third-party intermediaries to route the payments.
 
DoJ cited several reasons for declining prosecution: Liberty Mutual’s voluntary self-disclosure in March 2024, full cooperation with investigators, separation from individuals involved in the misconduct, comprehensive compliance reforms, and the absence of aggravating circumstances.
 
The decision marks DoJ’s first public enforcement action under the FCPA since the US government resumed enforcement of the anti-bribery law in June 2025, after a pause ordered in February 2025 by president Donald Trump. The revived enforcement approach is narrower in scope, focusing on cases involving national competitiveness, key infrastructure, cartels, or transnational crime.
 
DoJ emphasised that the agreement offers no protection to individuals, leaving open the possibility of future prosecutions against those who orchestrated or participated in the bribery. Liberty Mutual is required to continue cooperating with ongoing investigations and to make its employees and agents available for interviews or testimony.
 
In a statement, the company says: “We are pleased the DoJ acknowledged our proactive approach and affirmed our commitment to integrity and compliance across our global enterprise. We welcome this conclusion and, in addition to already taking decisive steps to address this matter, will continue to uphold our values and act responsibly everywhere we do business.”
 
The case adds Liberty Mutual to a long list of global corporations that have faced scrutiny under the FCPA which prohibits bribing foreign officials to obtain or retain business.
 
Comments
svrsama2015
7 months ago
Why single out this company alone? Most of the insurance companies, both non life and life, used to routinely make this kind of "marketing expenses" payments to banks and other intermediaries for customer referrals etc. and these were routed through third parties. This subterfuge was employed to go around the commission norms prescribed by IRDA. Presumably this legerdemain is no longer necessary since the regulator has removed the cap on commission expenses now. One of the fallout of such 'payments' has been the investigation by Tax Authorities into GST evasion. In reality this should qualify as money laundering!
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