Switzerland's attorney general ruled that Novartis AG will not face the criminal court over the payments it made to a shell company set up by U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Citing a statement from the attorney general's office, the Journal reported that the office found there was insufficient evidence to warrant the start of criminal proceedings, adding that no evidence was found that the payments were made to a foreign public official or that they were linked to any official act.
The Swiss drugmaker declined to provide a comment to the news outlet.
The decision arrives after two U.S. Democratic senators questioned Novartis regarding the payment of $1.2 million to Essential Consultants LLC.
In November 2017, lawyers from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller's office, who were investigating links between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian interference into the election, contacted Novartis.
Novartis said in a May 9 statement that it had paid more to Essential Consultants than the $400,000 figure it had disclosed previously.
The biopharmaceutical company, one of the largest by both market capitalization and sales, said it had signed a deal to make $100,000 monthly payments to the shell company over a year to gain Cohen's insight on how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters.
The pharmaceutical giant's CEO Vasant Narasimhan later labeled the contract a mistake, adding that he had no personal involvement on the matter. Felix Ehrat, the Swiss drugmaker's general counsel, retired over the payments, stating that "although the contract was legally in order, it was an error."
