Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announced today that a Chinese court found GSK’s China subsidiary guilty of bribery, and fined the company a record $489 million—the largest corporate penalty the country has ever imposed.
On Sept. 19, the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Hunan Province found GSK China Investment (GSK China) guilty of bribing non-government personnel in order to obtain improper commercial gains. GSK China “resorted to bribery to boost sales of its medical products and sought benefits in an unfair manner,” the court statement read.
