TIGO Guatemala Pays Over $118 Million to Resolve Bribery Investigation Under Two-Year Deferred Prosecution Agreement With the Justice Department
On November 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in Washington that Comunicaciones Celulares S.A., doing business as TIGO Guatemala, a mobile and fixed telecommunications service provider in Guatemala, had paid over $118 million to resolve the department's investigation into a long-running scheme to bribe government officials in Guatemala. TIGO Guatemala is a wholly owned subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular, S.A., an international telecommunications company incorporated and headquartered in Luxembourg that has its principal place of business in the United States.
TIGO Guatemala entered into a two-year deferred prosecution agreement in connection with a criminal information filed in the Southern District of Florida charging the company with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Under the agreement, the company agreed to pay a $60 million criminal penalty and $58,198,343 in administrative forfeiture, and TIGO Guatemala and Millicom agreed to continue cooperating with the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, to enhance TIGO Guatemala's compliance program, and to report periodically to the department on remediation throughout the term of the agreement.
According to court documents, between 2012 and 2018, TIGO Guatemala engaged in a widespread and systematic bribery scheme orchestrated by its then-Guatemalan shareholder and other then-senior personnel. The scheme featured monthly bribe payments, usually paid in cash, to numerous Guatemalan members of Congress or members of their security teams, in exchange for, among other things, their support for legislation that benefited TIGO Guatemala. The department said some of the cash used to pay bribes was the laundered proceeds of narcotrafficking.
The department said it gave significant weight to Millicom's initial voluntary and timely self-disclosure to the Criminal Division in 2015, but that TIGO Guatemala's then-Guatemalan shareholder used its operational control to prevent Millicom from accessing critical information and from requiring personnel to cooperate and take remedial actions, and the Fraud Section closed its initial investigation in 2018. In 2020, the department obtained and proactively developed new evidence from sources other than the company and reopened the investigation, finding that the criminal conduct had continued during and after the closure of the first phase and had involved narcotrafficking proceeds. TIGO Guatemala therefore did not meet the requirements for a resolution under Part I or Part II of the Criminal Division's Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy.
The company nevertheless received credit for its acceptance of responsibility, its substantial cooperation with the second phase of the investigation, and the extensive remedial measures it took after Millicom acquired full ownership and control in 2021, including terminating personnel involved in the scheme and enhancing its compliance program. In light of these considerations, the department said, the criminal penalty reflects a 50 percent reduction from the bottom of the applicable guidelines range and the deferred prosecution term is two years. The FBI is investigating the case, and the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of California previously charged four individuals connected to the scheme.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部大楼（资料照片）。APK摄，CC BY 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库同源图。 / Photo: The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington (file photo). By APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library image.
