Bribery

A federal grand jury has indicted Maryland State Senator Ulysses S. Currie and former Shoppers Food Warehouse Corp. (“SFW”) executives (former president William J. White and former vice president for real estate development R.

Ronald R. Bassak and his construction company, Meccon, Inc., have admitted in federal district court that he and his company paid a U.S. Postal Service contracting officer approximately $100,000 in bribes to secure contracts for his company. During the investigation, the contracting officer committed suicide. 

Alexander Everest, the chairman of Elite American Health Systems, LLC, a company based in California with an office in Manhattan, has been indicted for submitting forged, false documents to Harlem Hospital and for offering a bribe and unlawful gratuities to a hospital official in an effort to place recent medical school graduates in the hospital’s surgical residency program.

Federal charges have been brought against 11 defendants for allegedly operating a massive fraud and bribery scheme through which they fraudulently obtained more than $18 million intended to help needy parents with public assistance for day care services at more than 30 day care centers. The defendants also were charged with conspiring to pay and receive more than $100,000 in bribes to facilitate the criminal scheme.  

Two foreign subsidiaries of Alliance One International Inc., a global tobacco company headquartered in Morrisville, N.C., pleaded guilty today to violating various provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). In a related matter, Universal Leaf Tabacos Ltda. (Universal Brazil), a subsidiary of Universal Corporation, a Virginia corporation, settled charges, too. 

The U.S. government has filed civil forfeiture complaints against properties in New York and Virginia that represent a portion of illegal bribes paid to the former president of Taiwan and his wife, according to Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer and Director John Morton of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).   The forfeiture actions were filed in U.S.

Still don’t believe that international bribery is a risk – and that it’s being prosecuted in the U.S.? Don’t tell that to Flavio Ricotti, an Italian citizen who is a former executive of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc.

Apparently, it is not just the U.S. government that is increasing its prosecution of bribery and insider trading. Other countries are doing so, too. For example, news reports indicate that Huang Guangyu, a billionaire who had been considered China’s wealthiest person, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery, insider trading, and illegal business operations.

Hewlett-Packard, facing an investigation by U.S. and German prosecutors as to whether it paid about $11 million in bribes to get a technology contract with Russia, is being represented by top lawyers from the Gibson Dunn law firm: Debra Wong Yang, co-chair of the firm's crisis management and white-collar defense groups, and F. Joseph Warin, head of the firm's Washington, D.C., office. Lawyers from the Linklaters firm are representing HP in Europe. 

Tip of the hat for this news to Zach Lowe,

In an article entitled, “Top U.S. Bribery Prosecutor to Join Paul Weiss,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Mark Mendelsohn, the federal government’s lead prosecutor in charge of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, will be joining the Paul Weiss law firm to develop its FCPA defense practice.