Thursday, January 7, 2016
Monday, January 4, 2016
Sunday, January 3, 2016
AIRLINE TO PAY $2.8 MILLION TO SETTLE ALLEGATIONS OF FAA VIOLATIONS
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, December 21, 2015
Southwest Airlines Agrees to Pay $2.8 Million to Settle Action Alleging Federal Aviation Administration Safety Violations
“The Justice Department believes the settlement agreement with Southwest Airlines Co. will provide meaningful improvements in safety and compliance and further ensure the integrity of FAA air safety regulations,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
“Safety depends on compliance with our regulations,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “This agreement provides strong incentives for Southwest to take specific steps to address the compliance problems that the FAA investigations uncovered.”
This case was handled by the Civil Division’s Federal Programs Branch, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Washington, the FAA’s Office of General Counsel and the FAA’s Northwest Mountain Region.
The lawsuit is captioned United States v. Southwest Airlines Co., 14-cv-1693-JCC (W.D. Wa.). The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTOR TO PAY $1.5 MILLION FOR ILLEGAL STORAGE AND TRANSPORT OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Roanoke Chemical Distributor, Chem-Solv Inc., Pleads Guilty to Illegally Storing and Transporting Hazardous Waste and Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million in Penalties
Chem-Solv Inc. (Chem-Solv), formerly known as Chemicals & Solvents Inc., pleaded guilty today to illegally storing hazardous waste at its facility in Roanoke, Virginia, and to illegally transporting hazardous waste from that facility to another location, Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney John P. Fishwick of the Western District of Virginia announced today.
As a part of the plea agreement, Chem-Solv has agreed to pay a $1 million criminal fine for these violations, as well as an additional $250,000 to fund environmental community service projects. Chem-Solv has agreed to serve five years’ probation, during which time it must develop and implement an environmental compliance plan and be subjected to yearly independent environmental audits. In conjunction with the criminal settlement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a civil settlement with Chem-Solv that requires the company to pay a $250,000 penalty to settle alleged violations of improper hazardous waste storage at Chem-Solv’s Roanoke facility.
Chem-Solv operates a chemical blending and distribution facility on Industry Avenue S.E. in Roanoke as well as distribution facilities in Colonial Heights, Virginia, Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Piney Flats, Tennessee. Chem-Solv is in the business of purchasing chemicals and then reselling them to customers, either directly or after repackaging. As part of its ordinary business practices, Chem-Solv generated hazardous waste. A hazardous waste is waste which, because of its designation, quantity, concentration, or characteristics, poses a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment.
Count one of the information is based on a spill of several hundred gallons of ferric chloride – a hazardous substance – on the Chem-Solv facility in Roanoke in June 2012. Although most of the waste was cleaned up using vacuum trucks, some of the ferric chloride flowed from the Chem-Solv facility onto an adjoining property both before, and during, the cleanup. The pleadings allege that the adjoining property owner was not notified that ferric chloride had leaked onto their property. Chem-Solv then employed a waste transportation company to transport the waste to a disposal facility. Hazardous waste may only be transported by permitted carriers, and it must be properly placarded and be accompanied by a hazardous waste manifest identifying the waste and its characteristics. The pleadings allege that, although Chem-Solv was aware of the hazardous nature of ferric chloride, it did not properly test the waste and instructed the transporter to transport the waste as non-hazardous, without the proper placards and manifests.
Count two of the information charges Chem-Solv with the improper storage of hazardous waste. Chem-Solv was given advance notice of an EPA inspection in December 2013. At the time the advance notice was given, Chem-Solv was storing numerous containers of chemical waste on its facility that should have been disposed of properly. The pleadings allege that Chem-Solv directed its employees to load three trailers with the chemical waste in an attempt to prevent EPA inspectors from discovering it. Two of the three trailers were taken offsite. The third trailer, which was not road worthy, was stored on the Chem-Solv property for almost a year and its contents were discovered by law enforcement officers on Nov. 19, 2014, while executing a search warrant. That trailer was found to contain hazardous waste that Chem-Solv did not have a permit to store on its facility.
“With this plea agreement, Chem-Solv has an opportunity to put its egregious conduct behind it and learn from these mistakes by developing a strong environmental compliance plan, as required,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden. “The Justice Department and our federal partners will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone whose illegal conduct puts workers and the public at risk of harm from hazardous and toxic materials.”
“A corporation’s concern with the bottom line profit can cause it to cut corners by attempting to circumvent laws that are intended to protect the community and the environment,” said U.S. Attorney Fishwick. “The prosecution of Chem-Solv should send a strong message that such corporate actions will not be tolerated and will be punished.”
“The chemicals in this case are toxic, highly corrosive and acidic, and today’s plea demonstrates that when companies put the public at serious risk, they will be held accountable for their actions,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Lynn of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Virginia.
“The guilty plea entered today by Chem-Solv for illegally storing and transporting hazardous waste is a clear signal to those that would seek to circumvent or disregard transportation-related laws and regulations that there are serious repercussions for doing so,” said Regional Special Agent in Charge William Swallow of the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General.
The investigation was conducted by Special Agents of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General. Assistance in the investigation was provided by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Roanoke City Police Department and the Roanoke Fire-EMS Department and the Blue Ridge Environmental Task Force. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie L. M. Waering, Senior Trial Attorney James B. Nelson of the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section, and EPA Regional Criminal Enforcement Counsel David Lastra.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Sunday, December 6, 2015
POWER COMPANY TO PAY $722 MILLION CHEMICAL FINE TO RESOLVE BRIBERY CHARGES
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Friday, November 13, 2015
Alstom Sentenced to Pay $772 Million Criminal Fine to Resolve Foreign Bribery Charges
Represents Largest-Ever Criminal Foreign Bribery Fine
Alstom S.A., a French power and transportation company, was sentenced today to pay a $772,290,000 fine to resolve criminal charges related to a widespread corruption scheme involving at least $75 million in secret bribes paid to government officials in countries around the world, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Bahamas and Taiwan.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Gustafson the District of Connecticut and Assistant Director in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.
Alstom was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton of the District of Connecticut. Alstom pleaded guilty on Dec. 22, 2014, to a two-count criminal information charging the company with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by falsifying its books and records and failing to implement adequate internal controls.
In addition, Alstom Network Schweiz AG, formerly Alstom Prom AG (Alstom Prom), Alstom’s Swiss subsidiary, which pleaded guilty on Dec. 22, 2014, to a criminal information charging the company with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, was also sentenced today pursuant to its plea agreement. Alstom Power Inc. and Alstom Grid Inc., formerly Alstom T&D Inc., two U.S. subsidiaries, both entered into deferred prosecution agreements on Dec. 22, 2014, admitting that they conspired to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.
According to the companies’ admissions, Alstom, Alstom Prom, Alstom Power and Alstom T&D, through various executives and employees, paid bribes to government officials and falsified books and records in connection with power, grid and transportation projects for state-owned entities around the world, including in Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Bahamas and Taiwan. In Indonesia, for example, Alstom, Alstom Prom and Alstom Power paid bribes to government officials—including a high-ranking member of the Indonesian Parliament and high-ranking members of Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the state-owned electricity company in Indonesia—in exchange for assistance in securing several contracts to provide power-related services valued at approximately $375 million. In total, Alstom paid more than $75 million to secure more than $4 billion in projects around the world, with a profit to the company of approximately $300 million.
Alstom and its subsidiaries also attempted to conceal the bribery scheme by retaining consultants who purportedly provided consulting services on behalf of the companies, but who actually served as conduits for corrupt payments to the government officials. Internal Alstom documents refer to some of the consultants in code, including “Mr. Geneva,” “Mr. Paris,” “London,” “Quiet Man” and “Old Friend.”
The sentence, which is the largest criminal fine ever imposed in an FCPA case, reflects a number of factors, including: Alstom’s failure to voluntarily disclose the misconduct, even though it was aware of related misconduct at a U.S. subsidiary that previously resolved corruption charges with the department in connection with a power project in Italy; Alstom’s refusal to fully cooperate with the department’s investigation for several years; the breadth of the companies’ misconduct, which spanned many years, occurred in countries around the globe and in several business lines, and involved sophisticated schemes to bribe high-level government officials; Alstom’s lack of an effective compliance and ethics program at the time of the conduct; and Alstom’s prior criminal misconduct, including conduct that led to resolutions with various other governments and the World Bank.
After the department publicly charged several Alstom executives, however, Alstom began providing thorough cooperation, including assisting the department’s prosecution of other companies and individuals.
To date, the department has announced charges against five corporate executives for alleged corrupt conduct involving Alstom. Frederic Pierucci, Alstom’s former vice president of global boiler sales, pleaded guilty on July 29, 2013, to conspiring to violate the FCPA and a charge of violating the FCPA for his role in the Indonesia bribery scheme. David Rothschild, Alstom Power’s former vice president of regional sales, pleaded guilty on Nov. 2, 2012, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA. William Pomponi, Alstom Power’s former vice president of regional sales, pleaded guilty on July 17, 2014, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA. Lawrence Hoskins, Alstom’s former senior vice president for the Asia region, was charged in an indictment in connection with the Indonesia bribery scheme, and is pending trial in the District of Connecticut in April 2016. The charges against Hoskins are merely allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The high-ranking member of Indonesian Parliament was also convicted in Indonesia of accepting bribes from Alstom, and is currently serving a three-year prison term. In addition, Marubeni Corporation, which partnered with Alstom on the Indonesia project, pleaded guilty on March 19, 2014 to a criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the FCPA and seven counts of violating the FCPA, and was sentenced on May 15, 2014, to pay an $88 million criminal fine.
In connection with a corrupt scheme in Egypt, Asem Elgawhary, the general manager of an entity working on behalf of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, a state-owned electricity company, was the fifth individual charge and pleaded guilty on Dec. 4, 2014, in the District of Maryland to mail fraud, conspiring to launder money and tax fraud for accepting kickbacks from Alstom and other companies, and was sentenced on March 23, 2015, to serve 42 months in prison and forfeit approximately $5.2 million in proceeds.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, with assistance from the FBI’s Meriden, Connecticut, Resident Agency. The department appreciates the significant cooperation provided by its law enforcement colleagues in Indonesia at the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission), the Switzerland Office of the Attorney General and the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office, as well as authorities in France, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Taiwan.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Daniel S. Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick of the District of Connecticut, together with Assistant U.S. Attorney Zach Intrater of the District of New Jersey on the investigation of Alstom T&D, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David I. Salem of the District of Maryland on the investigation of Asem Elgawhary. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs also provided substantial assistance.
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