Chief Executive Daniel Och will pay a $2.2 million fine.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Och-Ziff used intermediaries, agents, and business partners to pay bribes to high-level officials in Libya, Chad, Niger, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to induce them to invest in its managed funds, as well as secure mining rights.

The settlement is one of the biggest criminal penalties levied on a United States hedge fund firm, dealing a blow to Och-Ziff as it works to stem withdrawals from its investors, which include state pension funds, endowments and foundations.

The court filings by federal prosecutors and securities regulators lay out a complex and elaborate tale of clandestine meetings and dealings with high-level officials in the regimes of Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya and President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. In one instance, Och-Ziff knowingly invested in a Libyan development project in which some members of the Qaddafi family had a financial interest.

“Senior executives cannot turn a blind eye to the acts of their employees or agents when they became aware of suspicious transactions with high-risk partners in foreign countries,” said Andrew Ceresney, director of the S.E.C.’s division of enforcement.

 Read more here: nytimes.com