According to the SEC, Novartis ($NVS) offered Chinese doctors lavish entertainments--including a junket to Chicago and Niagara Falls--and other inducements to boost prescriptions of its drugs in the country.

The allegations mirror those against a variety of other drugmakers that have settled similar investigations by the U.S. government and foreign agencies. The biggest settlement--and most far-reaching example of bribery in China--was the $489 million fine levied against GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) in 2014, which capped off an investigation into hundreds of millions in inducements for doctors and other healthcare officials, many of them booked as travel and meeting expenses.