According to the November 2011 Summary punishment order imposed by the Swiss authorities, Alstom Network Schweiz AG (Swiss subsidiary of the French company Alstom S.A.) was convicted of not having taken all necessary and reasonable organizational precautions to precent bribery of foreign public officials in Latvia, Tunisia and Malaysia. In Latvia, "from 2006 onwards, the state energy company LATVENERGO AS had contracts to award in various projects in Latvia relating to the modernization of power stations. ALSTOM Power Sweden and ALSTOM Hydro Sweden signed various consultancy agreements with companies of a former ALSTOM employee providing for success fees to be paid for the successful signing of delivery and maintenance contracts for power stations: Plavinas Hydo Power Plant 4, 5 and 7 and Plavinas Hydri Power Paint 1, 3, 6, 9 and 10. After the award of the two Plavinas projects to the Swedish Alstom companies, the companies paid the success fees to Alstom Network, which then transferred them to the former employee/consultant who in turn transferred the funds to three executives of the state company LATVENERGO who 'were decisively involved in the decisions related to awarding projects. Apparently the sole interest was influencing LATVENERGO AS decision-makers with bribes to award the contract to ALSTOM." Alstom Schweiz was fined CHF 2.5 million; a compensatory claim of CHF 36.4 million was also imposed. The parent company Alstom S.A. paid the CHF 1 million in reparation, a third of which was to be used for International Committee of the Red Cross projects in Latvia. (Sources: Office of the Swiss Attorney General, Summary punishment order in the invesitgation of defendant Alstom Network Schweiz AG, November 22, 2011 and The Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, "Criminal proceedings against Alstom entities are brought to a close," November 22, 2011.)
According to the November 2011 press release by the Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, Alstom Network Schweiz AG was convicted under article 102 of the Swiss Criminal Code of not having taken "all necessary and reasonable organizational precautions to prevent bribery of foreign public officials"; proceedings against the French parent company Alstom S.A. were dismissed based on art. 53 of the Swiss Criminal Code, imposing costs of proceedings and payment of reparations. (Source: The Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, "Criminal proceedings against Alstom entities are brought to a close," November 22, 2011.)
Assets returned
Funds were transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross for use in ICRC projects in Tunisia, Latvia and Malaysia. (Source: The Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation, "Criminal proceedings against Alstom entities are brought to a close," November 22, 2011.)
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