In March 2024, Abraham Cigarroa Cervantes the former Finance Director for Stericycle, Inc.’s Latin America division (“Stericycle LATAM”), was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s anti-bribery provisions and one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s books and records provisions for his alleged role in a scheme involving the payment of bribes to Mexican, Brazilian, and Argentinian government officials in exchange for contracts for Stericycle. According to the government’s Unopposed Motion for Protective Order, Cigarroa, a Mexican citizen, was arrested in Argentina and subsequently extradited to the United States on April 23, 2026. At his arraignment on April 24, 2026, Cigarroa pleaded not guilty. A jury trial has been set for June 1, 2026.
According to the 2024 Indictment, Cigarroa served not only as Stericycle LATAM’s Finance Director but was also, among other things, a member of Stericycle’s FCPA Compliance Management Steering Committee. Between 2011 and 2016, federal prosecutors allege that he conspired with others to pay approximately $10.5 million in bribes to government officials in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in order to win and retain contracts to provide waste management services in these jurisdictions.
In a related matter, Mauricio Gomez Baez was charged and pled guilty to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA as part of the same alleged scheme. Gomez Baez had served as Stericycle LATAM’s Senior Vice President at the time of the offense. He was sentenced on June 21, 2024, to seven months imprisonment, three years’ supervised release, and was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $250,000.
In 2022, Stericycle agreed to pay more than $84 million as part of a coordinated foreign bribery resolution that resolved parallel investigations by authorities in the U.S. and Brazil. The resolution included the payment of a $52.5 million criminal penalty to the Department of Justice as part of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and the payment of nearly $28.2 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both the DOJ and the SEC agreed to offset parts of these penalties for payments Stericycle made to Brazilian enforcement authorities.
Cigarroa – Docket Entries| Cigarroa – Protective Order | Cigarroa – Indictment | DOJ Press Release (March 2024) | Cigarroa – Notice of Related Case | Gomez Baez – Plea Agreement| Gomez Baez – Judgment