Sir Andrew Witty is stepping down as the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) and Emma Walmsley has been appointed as his successor. This appointment of the next head of the U.K. pharmaceutical giant gave The Man From FCPA pause to reconsider what was most probably Sir Andrew’s greatest setback during his tenure; the GSK in China scandal which led to the company being convicted of bribery and corruption of Chinese government official in the health care industry, under Chinese domestic law. The company paid a fine of nearly $498 million and had its top three China business unit officials criminally convicted for their roles in overseeing the bribery scheme. There has been no final resolution of these matters under either the U.K. Bribery Act or FCPA.
While the fallout from the matter did not reach Sir Andrew, the cost to the company was certainly high. In addition to the criminal penalty of $498 million, the company also paid bribes of over $500 million for five years. The investigation cost has never been reported so that figure is unknown. There was also a sex tape scandal which led to the conviction and incarceration of a UK citizen Peter Humphreys and his wife, Yu Yingzeng, a naturalized US citizen, who investigated the provenance of the sex tape.
