As if Panasonic did not have enough legal troubles to deal with already, the Japanese electronics giant is now under investigation for allegedly bribing businesses to secure its contracts overseas. Wall Street Journal published a report concerning this incident. You can read it here.

A court ordered subpoena was issued to Panasonic Avionics; a subsidiary of Panasonic, which is responsible for creating and distributing in flight display/ entertainment products. Panasonic Avionics (PAC) also distributes in-flight communication system for airline use.

The company documents were reviewed by Journal, which states that a notice was issued in January 20 to instruct recipients to preserve all documentation “concerning any benefits or gifts provided, or the payment of anything of value, by Panasonic or PAC to any airline employee or government officials.”

Seems like an investigation was already underway, while the authorities were trying their best to gather evidence against Panasonic. It is not clear which agency was conducting the investigation against Calif. based subsidiary. I hardly doubt that you ever read the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I do know for a fact that someone will paste its contents if this news goes live on Reddit.

According to the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, all U.S. companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange, are prohibited from paying bribes, or paying anything which goes beyond the court of law’s definition of “reasonable payment” will be taken as a matter of concern. Such companies will face a legal investigation for bribery to government officials, other companies, overseas business partners – so on and so forth.

This law was enforced by the U.S. DoJ (Department of Justice) and the SEC (Security Exchange Commission). Wall Street Journal is still awaiting a response from Panasonic Avionics, the SEC and the Department of Justice about this case, but no one has made any comments yet. Panasonic is facing serious financial crisis.

You can read about Panasonic job cuts here. Last year, over 30,000 employees were fired after revenue and company’s performance was evaluated. This time, almost 10,000 employees are expecting the same by the end of March 2013/ mid of April 2013.