McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company’s South African subsidiary, McKinsey Africa, entered into a three-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the United States Department of Justice on 5 December 2024, paying $122 m (R 1.1 bn) t ose ttl ec ha r g es t ha t i t ha d b r ib e d o ff i c ia l s a t [[E s k o m]] an d [[T r an s n e t]] b e tw ee n 2012 an d 2016. T h e NP A w i t h d re w i t s p a r a ll e l c ha r g es a g ain s tM cK in sey in J an u a ry 2025 a f t er p a y m e n tw a sco m pl e t e d . T h eD O Jf o u n d t ha tM cK in sey A f r i c a e a r n e d a pp ro x ima t e l y$ 85m in profits from the bribery scheme.

Mechanism: Vikas Sagar, a senior McKinsey Africa partner and the scheme’s ringleader, obtained confidential and non-public information from Transnet and Eskom officials about upcoming contracts, then submitted McKinsey proposals knowing that South African partner firms — first Regiments Capital (Eric Wood) and then Trillian Management Consultants (controlled by Salim Essa, the Gupta family’s key state capture strategist) — would pay a portion of their fees as bribes to the relevant SOE officials. This structure allowed McKinsey to win contracts worth nearly R2bn while Essa and the Guptas extracted and laundered kickbacks from Transnet, Eskom, and South African Airways. Sagar had co-drafted portions of Transnet and Eskom’s own requests for bids and internal justification documents. He pleaded guilty in December 2022 to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

Prior accountability steps: McKinsey repaid approximately R1bn to Eskom in 2018 — the only firm that had repaid earnings from state capture at the time. It cooperated with the Zondo Commission and terminated its Regiments and Trillian relationships on probity grounds in 2016. The DOJ reduced McKinsey’s penalty by 35% for these remedial measures.

Connections

Eskom — bribery scheme 2012–2016; confidential contract info obtained; McKinsey earned ~R2bn across both SOEs
Transnet — parallel bribery scheme; same Sagar/Essa/Trillian mechanism
Gupta Family — Salim Essa (Gupta lieutenant) controlled Trillian, the conduit for SOE kickbacks via McKinsey contracts
Bain & Company — parallel pattern at SARS: both multinational consultancies used SA front-firm structures; both faced government contract bans and international sanctions
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) — NPA charges withdrawn January 2025 following DPA payment; NPA-DOJ co-operation on case noted as model
Zondo Commission — McKinsey’s R1bn Eskom repayment and cooperation cited by Zondo as contrast to other implicated firms’ non-cooperation

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