Bernd Kowalewski, Foreign Bribery, Oklahoma 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bernd Kowalewski, the former president and chief executive officer of BizJet International Sales and Support Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik AG, has pleaded guilty to foreign bribery charges.

Kowalewski, 57, pleaded guilty in federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 20, 2014 to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and a substantive violation of the FCPA in connection with a scheme to pay bribes to officials in Mexico and Panama in exchange for those officials’ assistance in securing contracts for BizJet to perform aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

The scheme involved paying bribes directly to foreign officials to secure aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul contracts, and in some instances, the defendants funneled bribes to foreign officials through a shell company owned and operated by Jald Jensen.

The shell company, Avionica International & Associates Inc., operated under the pretense of providing aircraft maintenance brokerage services but in reality laundered money related to BizJet’s bribery scheme.

Bribes were paid to officials employed by the Mexican Policia Federal Preventiva, the Mexican Coordinacion General de Transportes Aereos Presidenciales, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sinaloa, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sonora and the Republica de Panama Autoridad Aeronautica Civil.

Kowalewski was arrested on a provisional arrest warrant by authorities in Amsterdam on March 13, 2014 and waived extradition on June 20, 2014.

This is the third BizJet executive to plead guilty in this case. Peter DuBois, the former Vice President of Sales and Marketing, pleaded guilty on January 5, 2012, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and a substantive violation of the FCPA and Neal Uhl, the former Vice President of Finance, pleaded guilty on January 5, 2012, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

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