louis Berger International Inc, the New Jersey-based construction management company, has admitted to bribing Indian officials to the tune of several crores of rupees to secure two water development projects in Goa and Guwahati.
According to court records, a sum of $976,630 by way of bribes had been made for the Goa water project as of August 2010 — and it included money reportedly paid to a Minister.
An e-mail sent by a consortium partner to former company executive James McClung had an attachment that included the entry, “Paid by (an employee of the Company) to Minister on behalf of agent.”
Neither the name of the Minister nor details of the payments have been provided. Also no details were available about the quantum of bribes reportedly paid for the Guwahati project.
Making the announcement, the US Department of Justice said that louis Berger International has admitted to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and agreed to pay a $17.1 million criminal penalty to resolve charges that it bribed foreign officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait to secure Government construction management contracts.
It also said that two of the company’s former executives, McClung and Richard Hirsch have each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and one substantive count of violating the FCPA.
While McClung had served as the senior vice-president responsible for the company’s operations in India, Hirsch had served in the same capacity in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The sentencing hearings for McClung and Hirsch are scheduled for November 5, 2015. louis Berger International has operated in India since 1998, with offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Along with several consortium partners, the company won two water development projects in Goa and Guwahati, the court records said, noting: “The Company paid bribes to win both of those contracts.”
“The bribe money was disguised as payments to vendors for services that had never actually been rendered. The Company through its employees and agents and its consortium partners kept track of the bribe payments by circulating a spreadsheet amongst themselves showing the proportionate share of each bribe that they had paid to the foreign officials overseeing their work on the Goa and Guwahati projects,” the document said.
Citing admissions and statements in the charging documents, the Department of Justice said that overall, James Berger International and its employees, including McClung and Hirsch, orchestrated $3.9 million in bribe payments to foreign officials to secure government contracts in various countries between 1998 and 2010.