Monday, June 18, 2012
Data Systems & Solutions LLC Resolves Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations and Agrees to Pay $8.82 Million Criminal Penalty
Data Systems & Solutions LLC (DS&S), a company based in Reston, Va., that provides design, installation, maintenance and other services at nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, has agreed to pay an $8.82 million criminal penalty to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride.
The department filed a two-count criminal information today in the Eastern District of Virginia charging DS&S with conspiring to violate, and violating, the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.
According to court documents, DS&S paid bribes to officials employed by the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, a state-owned nuclear power plant in Lithuania, to secure contracts to perform services for the plant. To disguise the scheme, the bribes were funneled through several subcontractors located in the United States and abroad. The subcontractors, in turn, made repeated payments to high-level officials at Ignalina via check or wire transfer.
The department also filed today a deferred prosecution agreement with DS&S. Under the terms of the agreement, the department will defer prosecution of DS&S for two years. In addition to the monetary penalty, DS&S agreed to cooperate with the department, to report periodically to the department concerning DS&S’s compliance efforts, and to continue to implement an enhanced compliance program and internal controls designed to prevent and detect FCPA violations. If DS&S abides by the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, the department will dismiss the criminal information when the agreement’s term expires.
The agreement acknowledges DS&S’s extraordinary cooperation, including conducting an extensive, thorough and swift internal investigation; providing to the department extensive information and evidence; and responding promptly and fully to the department’s requests. In addition, DS&S has engaged in extensive remediation, including terminating the officers and employees responsible for the corrupt payments; instituting a more rigorous compliance program; enhancing its due diligence protocol for third-party agents and subcontractors; strengthening its ethics policies; providing FCPA training for all agents and subcontractors; and establishing heightened review of most foreign transactions.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Daniel S. Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Connolly from the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington D.C. Field Office. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.
