Las Vegas Sands has agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by failing to properly authorize or document millions of dollars in payments to a consultant facilitating business activities in China and Macao.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...