William Pomponi, Foreign Bribery, Connecticut 2013

Former Alstom exec, William Pomponi, pleads guilty to foreign bribery scheme in Connecticut

A former senior executive of Alstom Power Inc., a subsidiary of the French power and transportation company Alstom SA, pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials. William Pomponi, a former vice president of regional sales at Alstom Power Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with the awarding of the Tarahan power project in Indonesia.

Pomponi was charged in a second superseding indictment on July 30, 2013. He is the fourth defendant to plead guilty to charges stemming from this investigation. Frederic Pierucci, the vice president of global boiler sales at Alstom, pleaded guilty on July 29, 2013, to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and one count of violating the FCPA. David Rothschild, a former vice president of regional sales at Alstom Power Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the FCPA on Nov. 2, 2012. Marubeni Corporation, Alstom’s consortium partner on the Tarahan project, pleaded guilty on March 19, 2014, to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and seven counts of violating the FCPA, and was sentenced to pay a criminal fine of $88 million.

Federal court documents show that the defendants, together with others, paid bribes to officials in Indonesia, including a member of the Indonesian Parliament and high-ranking members of Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the state-owned and state-controlled electricity company in Indonesia, in exchange for assistance in securing a $118 million contract, known as the Tarahan project, to provide power-related services for the citizens of Indonesia from facilities in Tarahan.

To conceal the bribes, the defendants retained two consultants purportedly to provide legitimate consulting services on behalf of Alstom and Marubeni in connection with the Tarahan project. In reality, the primary purpose for hiring the consultants was to use the consultants to pay bribes to Indonesian officials.

Pomponi is currently awaiting sentencing. The Criminal Division of the Department of Justice will follow evidence of corruption wherever it leads, including into corporate boardrooms and corner offices. As this case demonstrates, we will hold both companies and their executives responsible for criminal conduct.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-executive-french-power-company-subsidiary-pleads-guilty-connection-foreign-bribery