(Bloomberg) -- A crypto miner agreed to pay a $4 million penalty to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it engaged in a scheme to bribe Japanese officials, the agency said Monday. 

BIT Mining Ltd., formerly known as 500.com Limited, between 2017 and 2019 paid $2.5 million in cash bribes and gifts, including to members of the Japanese parliament, to try to win a bid to open a casino resort in Japan, the SEC said. 

In a parallel action, the Justice Department said it had entered into an agreement in which BIT Mining agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine, of which $4 million will be satisfied by the company’s payment to the SEC. 

Company insiders at 500.com, at the time an online sports lottery company, covered up the payments by recording fake consultant contracts and management advisory fees, US officials alleged. 

“Paying bribes to foreign government officials is a serious crime,” US Attorney Philip Sellinger for the District of New Jersey said in a statement. “The illegal scheme started at the top, with the company’s CEO allegedly fully involved in directing the illicit payments and the subsequent efforts to conceal them.”

An attorney for the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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