By Samuel Rubenfeld From Wall Street Journal

A former regional director of SAP SE SAP.XE -1.02% admitted to participating in a scheme to bribe Panama government officials to secure technology contracts for his employer.

Vicente Eduardo Garcia, of Miami, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery of foreign officials to get or keep business. Mr. Garcia was a vice president of global and strategic accounts for SAP International, a Miami-based subsidary of the German software firm. SAP requested he resign in April 2014 for his misconduct.

A lawyer for Mr. Garcia wasn’t immediately available for comment. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Update: Izzy Ramsey, a lawyer for Mr. Garcia, said his client accepted full responsibility for his actions. “He regrets them deeply and sincerely apologizes for his conduct,” said Mr. Ramsey.

Prosecutors said Mr. Garcia admitted he conspired with others to pay bribes to two Panamanian government officials, and an agent of a third official, to help SAP secure a multi-million-dollar contract to provide a state agency with an upgrade package.

Mr. Garcia admitted he believed paying the bribes was “necessary” to secure both an initial contract, and additional contracts, with the Panamanian government, prosecutors said. The conspirators used sham contracts and false invoices to disguise the true nature of the bribes, prosecutors said, citing Mr. Garcia’s admissions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission separately settled with Mr. Garcia in an administrative action, alleging he caused his former company to sell software to a partner in Panama at discounts of up to 82%. The discount enabled the partner to create a slush fund from its excessive earnings on the other end of the sales and use that money to pay the bribes to Panama officials, the SEC said.

Mr. Garcia also received kickbacks from the slush fund, the SEC alleged. He agreed to a roughly $92,000 SEC penalty, which was a disgorgement of the kickbacks he received, as well as interest, the SEC said.

IMAGE: Bloomberg News

For more on this story go to: http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/08/12/former-sap-executive-pleads-guilty-to-bribery-charge/
See also SEC Cease and Desist proceedings against Vicente E. Garcia at: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2015/34-75684.pdf