Statement: McKinsey South Africa has entered into a final resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). | South Africa

McKinsey South Africa has entered into a final resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). McKinsey welcomes the resolution of these matters.

5 December 2024

This resolves investigations by the DOJ and the NPA into McKinsey South Africa’s work for state-owned enterprises, Eskom and Transnet, from 2012 to 2016.
As noted in the resolutions, McKinsey conducted an extensive investigation into the corrupt conduct of a former partner, Vikas Sagar, who concealed his unlawful conduct from the company and his colleagues and then sought to cover up his conduct. McKinsey terminated his employment more than seven years ago.
McKinsey has zero tolerance for employees who do not strictly adhere to the company’s compliance policies, procedures, and professional standards.
McKinsey is deeply remorseful that an employee of our firm engaged in corrupt conduct. We publicly apologized in 2018 and chose to take accountable action, including taking responsibility for Sagar’s conduct.
Our significant remediation efforts and investment in our risk control functions and processes, extensive investigation, full cooperation with the authorities in the United States and South Africa, and full repayment of the fees to the state-owned enterprises years ago led to the full resolution of these matters.
McKinsey will continue to cooperate with authorities in both South Africa and the United States in their ongoing investigations.

McKinsey South Africa said:
“McKinsey welcomes the resolution of these matters and the closure of this regretful situation. McKinsey is a very different firm today than when these matters first took place. We fired Mr. Sagar soon after learning of these issues, returned our fees with interest, cooperated with the authorities, and made significant upgrades to our risk, legal, and compliance controls to ensure McKinsey sets the standard across our profession. As McKinsey South Africa begins to look towards the future, we want to reiterate our commitment to the people of South Africa and to regaining their trust.”