The sentence comprises £15m in fines and £1.4m in costs.
The investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was launched in 2009 on the basis of information provided by Switzerland’s Attorney General concerning the Alstom Group, in particular Alstom Network UK.
The charges were brought after it was discovered Alstom Network UK paid Canadian-based Construction et Gestion Nevco €2.4m to secure a €79.9m contract with Tunis Metro operator Transtu. SFO says that to satisfy internal compliance checks and make its agreement with Nevco appear a legitimate contract for services, Alstom helped to produce paperwork as ‘evidence’ of services rendered. In reality, Nevco was simply a conduit for bribes. This was acknowledged by Alstom Network UK when it decided not to make a final payment of €240,000 in its original €2.64m contract, the SFO says.
During the same trial, senior vice-president at Alstom’s Country Network based in Paris and Alstom International director, Mr Graham Hill, Alstom Transport India managing director, Mr Robert Hallett, and Alstom Network UK were acquitted of alleged corruption in relation to transport contracts in India and Poland.
“This sentencing brings to an end a case which involved cooperation from over 30 countries and concerned conduct across Europe and beyond,” says SFO director, Ms Lisa Osofsky.
As part of the same investigation, Alstom subsidiary Alstom Power was fined more than £6m, required to pay nearly £11m in compensation and £700,000 in costs after bribing senior Lithuanian figures to win contracts to upgrade and refit the Lithuanian Power Plant (LPP). Alstom Group companies paid more than €5m in bribes to secure the €240m contract, with papers falsified to circumvent checks put in place to prevent bribery by Alstom staff responsible for preventing corruption.
Mr John Venskus, a former business development manager relations manager in Lithuania for Alstom Power, who pleaded guilty, received a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay costs of £410,000, while Alstom Power Sweden regional sales director, Mr Göran Wikström, who also pleaded guilty, received a two-year-and-seven-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay costs of £40,000. Mr Nicholas Reynolds, who was global sales director for Alstom Power’s Boiler Retrofits, was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay £50,000 in costs.
Countries that cooperated with the SFO’s investigation included France, Canada, USA, Hungary, Denmark, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, India, Sweden, Lithuania, Switzerland and Tunisia.
