JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The investigations into BHP Billiton’s previously terminated minerals exploration and development efforts, as well as hospitality provided by the mining giant at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has been concluded by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice.

The miner on Wednesday said it would continue to cooperate with the Australian Federal Police investigation, which was announced in 2013.

The matter was also being resolved with the SEC pursuant to an administrative order, which imposed a $25-million civil penalty. The SEC order made no findings of corrupt intent or bribery by BHP Billiton with regard to potential breaches of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES
As part of a hospitality programme, the miner invited customers, suppliers, business partners and government officials, along with company employees, to the Beijing Olympic Games.

While BHP Billiton made efforts at the time to address the risks related to inviting government officials to the Olympics, the controls it relied upon were insufficient to satisfy the civil books and records, and internal accounting controls requirements of the US statute.

The SEC noted the “significant cooperation” BHP Billiton provided during the extensive investigation, which started in 2009. It also noted the “significant remedial actions” the company had taken over the past five years to enhance its compliance programme.

At the time of its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, BHP Billiton had no independent compliance function. Instead, accountability for complying with the company’s anticorruption policies, which were set out in its guide to business conduct, was vested in its operating business units.

The company had since created an independent compliance function that reported to the head of the legal function and the risk and audit committee of the BHP Billiton board. Today, this function would be required to approve any offer of hospitality of this kind to a government official. Under the SEC order, BHP Billiton would self-report on its compliance programme for 12 months.

“We have fully cooperated with the SEC throughout this process. We have taken the appropriate remedial actions and developed a world-class compliance programme that builds on the strong policies we have had in place. BHP Billiton operates a global resources business and recognises that the highest standards of business conduct are an essential part of our operations. Our company has learned from this experience and is better and stronger as a result,” BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said.