Louis Berger Didenda US$17,1 Juta setelah Suap Pejabat Indonesia, Thailand, Filipina dan Vietnam
New Jersey Company to Pay $17.1m Fine to Settle Bribery Charges
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
LOUIS BERGER International Inc, perusahaan manajemen konstruksi berbasis di New Jersey, AS diwajibkan membayar denda pidana sebesar US$17,1 juta atas dakwaan menyuap pejabat pemerintah untuk memenangkan kontrak di luar AS, menurut Kementerian Kehakiman AS pada Jumat.
Dua mantan eksekutif Louis Berger juga mengaku bersalah atas dakwaan melanggar UU Praktik Korupsi di Luar Negeri, kata pejabat kementerian.
Menurut jaksa, perusahaan dan karyawannya menyuap pejabat di India, Indonesia, Vietnam dan Kuwait pada 1998 dan 2010 untuk mendapatkan kontrak manajemen konstruksi dari empat pemerintahan tersebut.
Terkait suap US$3,9 juta yang dibayarkan kepada para pejabat asing, kata jaksa, termasuk oleh dua mantan eksekutif Louis Berger: Richard Hirsch, 61, dan James McClung, 59.
Hirsch adalah wakil presiden senior Louis Berger untuk Indonesia, Thailand, Filipina dan Vietnam. Sementara McClung adalah wakil presiden senior di India dan Vietnam, seperti dikutip Reuters yang dilansir MailOnline.
Pembayaran ilegal yang disamarkan sebagai "biaya komitmen," dan "biaya lain-lain' dan pembayaran vendor pihak ketiga, kata Departemen Kehakiman.
Louis Berger mengatakan dalam sebuah pernyataan bahwa tiga tahun perjanjian penuntutan ditangguhkan akibat pelaporan ke Departemen Kehakiman sejak 2010, perusahaan setuju untuk membayar lebih dari US$69 juta kepada pemerintah AS untuk menyelesaikan kelebihan biaya antara 2001 dan 2007.
"Pengenaan denda adalah tonggak penting terkini dalam reformasi kami, karena itu penting bagi kami untuk mengambil tanggung jawab atas tindakan bersejarah kepada mantan manajer dan menutup bab pada era perusahaan sebelum 2010," kata Presiden Direktur Louis Berger, Nicholas J. Masucci.
Perusahaan menambahkan bahwa sejak 2010, menerapkan kebijakan meningkatkan kontrol internal, kebijakan dan prosedur dan memantau kepatuhan yang ditunjuk pemerintah akan menguji dan melaporkan pada mereka selama tiga tahun ke depan.
Louis Berger, yang berkantor pusat di Morristown, beroperasi di lebih dari 50 negara dan memiliki sekitar 6.000 karyawan, menurut website-nya.
LOUIS BERGER International Inc, a New-Jersey-based construction management company, will pay a $17.1 million criminal fine to resolve charges that it bribed officials to win government contracts abroad, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.
Two former executives also pleaded guilty to charges brought under the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, the department said.
According to prosecutors, the company and its employees bribed officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait between 1998 and 2010 to obtain government construction management contracts.
About $3.9 million in bribes were paid to foreign officials, prosecutors said, including by the two former executives Richard Hirsch, 61, and James McClung, 59.
Hirsch was Louis Berger's senior vice president for Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. McClung was a senior vice president in India and Vietnam.
The illegal payments were disguised as "commitment fees," "counterpart per diems," and third-party vendor payments, the Justice Department said.
Louis Berger said in a statement that the three-year deferred prosecution agreement resulted from its own self-reporting to the Justice Department since 2010, the year the company agreed to pay more than $69 million to the U.S. government to settle charges for overbilling between 2001 and 2007.
"Today's settlement is the critical final milestone in our reform, as it was important for us to take responsibility for the historic actions of former managers and close the chapter on the company's pre-2010 era," Louis Berger Chairman Nicholas J. Masucci said in a statement.
The company added that since 2010, it improved its internal controls, policies and procedures and that a government-appointed compliance monitor would test and report on them over the next three years.
Louis Berger, which is headquartered in Morristown, operates in more than 50 countries and has about 6,000 employees, according to its website.
