French engineering giant Alstom has pleaded guilty and will pay $ 772 million to settle charges of paying bribes to foreign government officials to win contracts around the globe, the largest-ever fine levied by the US against a company for violations of bribery-related charges. The agreement comes after more than six years of investigations into Alstom by law enforcement in the US, Switzerland and Indonesia.
"Alstom’s corruption scheme was sustained over more than a decade and across several continents," said Deputy Attorney General James Cole."It was astounding in its breadth, its brazenness and its world-wide consequences." The record criminal penalty reflects in part what prosecutors say was as a failure by the company to disclose the misconduct or to cooperate with the investigation for several years, The Wall Street Journal reported.