SMITH & NEPHEW, Europe’s biggest maker of artificial hips and knees, has agreed to pay $22.2 million to settle allegations by the US justice department and Securities and Exchange Commission that it engaged in a scheme to pay bribes in Greece.

Smith & Nephew, according to filings yesterday in federal court in Washington, admitted that two of its subsidiaries were involved in a scheme for more than a decade to make “illicit payments” to doctors employed by government hospitals or agencies in Greece in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

“Smith & Nephew’s subsidiaries chose a path of corruption rather than fair and honest competition,” Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s FCPA unit, said in a statement.

Had Smith & Nephew been convicted of the allegations, the firm could have been excluded from participating in US healthcare programmes, prosecutors said.

Olivier Bohuon, Smith & Nephew’s chief executive said: “We have what I believe to be a world-class compliance programme, having enhanced it significantly since this investigation began in 2007.” – (Bloomberg)