April 12 (Reuters) - The U.S Justice Department is in talks with hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC over a possible criminal guilty plea in relation to a five-year international bribery investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Federal authorities are pushing the New York-based firm to plead guilty in what would be a rare move for a big financial institution if it were to materialize. The securities regulators are seeking civil sanctions of as much as $400 million from Och-Ziff, over alleged profits arising from bribery overseas, WSJ reported. (http://on.wsj.com/1S6rChD)
Och-Ziff's lawyers have argued that the potentially illegal behavior wasn't widely known and that the company shouldn't be held criminally liable, the newspaper reported.
Representatives of the Justice Department and SEC were not immediately available for comment outside U.S. regular business hours.
The investigations have looked into whether Och-Ziff, one of the few publicly traded hedge fund firms, with $42 billion of assets under management, knowingly bribed government officials to obtain an investment from Libya's sovereign-wealth fund and in natural-resources deals with other African countries, WSJ reported.
The firm's lawyers have also attempted to convince prosecutors for a deferred prosecution agreement, in which any charges would be dismissed after a period if the company stays out of trouble, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutors are deciding whether to seek a guilty plea from Och-Ziff's corporate parent or an affiliate. A settlement could be finalized in the next three months, the Journal reported.
The probe centers around Michael Cohen, Och-Ziff's former London-based head of European investing, who was responsible for investments in Libya and other African countries. Cohen resigned in March 2013 after 15 years at the firm, WSJ reported.
Cohen and an analyst who worked for him, Vanja Baros, each has received a "Wells notice" from the SEC, indicating that it is planning a civil enforcement action against them, and prosecutors also have investigated them criminally, WSJ reported.
Cohen and Baros could not be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Bhanu Pratap; Editing by Sunil Nair)