SEC Settles Charges Against Former Colliers Broker Who Tried To Bribe Foreign Official

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled Foreign Corruption Practices Act charges against Joohyun Bahn, a New Jersey real estate broker who attempted to bribe a foreign official while working for Colliers International Group.

The FCPA, enacted in 1977, prohibits bribes to foreign officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Bahn attempted to bribe an official of a country in the Middle East as part of an effort to broker the sale of Landmark 72, a high-rise commercial building in Vietnam, on behalf of Colliers.  

Early this year Bahn pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and one count of violating the Act.  

According to admissions made in connection with Bahn’s plea, in 2014 and 2015, he joined a scheme to pay $500K to an official in a country in the Middle East to facilitate the sale by a South Korean construction company, Keangnam Enterprises, of Landmark 72 in Hanoi to the Middle Eastern country’s sovereign wealth fund. Bahn's father was a senior executive at Keangnam.

Had it gone through, the $800M deal would have earned Bahn a multimillion-dollar commission and capital for his client, Keangnam Enterprises.

"The SEC’s order found that Bahn gave the bribe to an accomplice, expecting him to pass it along to the official," the SEC said. "But the accomplice, who had misrepresented the official’s involvement in the scheme, kept the money for himself, and the official was unaware of the attempted bribe.

"The SEC’s order also found that Bahn circumvented Colliers’ internal accounting controls, fabricated documents, created fictitious email messages and lied to Colliers executives."

“Although the fact pattern here is atypical, the underlying violations are straightforward," Charles Cain, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit, said in a statement. "Bahn engaged in an egregious bribe scheme that involved a web of lies and false documents as he attempted to bribe a foreign official in order to make a sale." 

Bahn has agreed to pay $225K in disgorgement (a penalty under securities law), which was deemed satisfied by the restitution ordered at his Sept. 6 criminal sentencing by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York. Bahn was also sentenced to six months in prison.