Alcatel Executive Jailed for 30 Months for Bribery
A former Alcatel executive has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for engaging in an elaborate bribery scheme to obtain a mobile telephone contract from the state-owned telecommunications authority in Costa Rica by making more than $2.5 million in corrupt payments to Costa Rican officials, in violation of the USA's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Christian Sapsizian, 62, a French citizen, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the FCPA as charged in a superseding indictment returned on March 20, 2007. As part of his plea, Sapsizian agreed to cooperate with U.S. and foreign law enforcement officials in the ongoing investigation. The assistance provided by Sapsizian in ongoing criminal investigations was taken into consideration by the court at sentencing.
According to information contained in plea documents, until Nov. 30, 2006, Sapsizian had been employed by Alcatel or one of its subsidiaries for more than 20 years and at the time the corrupt payments were made, was the assistant to the vice president of the Latin American region for Alcatel.
Sapsizian admitted that between February 2000 and September 2004, he conspired with Edgar Valverde Acosta, a Costa Rican citizen who was Alcatel's senior country officer in Costa Rica, and others to make more than $2.5 million in bribe payments to Costa Rican officials to obtain a telecommunications contract on behalf of Alcatel. According to information in plea documents, the payments were made to a board director for Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the state-run telecommunications authority in Costa Rica, which was responsible for awarding all telecommunications contracts.
Sapsizian also admitted that the ICE official was an advisor to a senior Costa Rican government official and that the payments were shared with that senior official. The payments were funneled through one of Alcatel's Costa Rican consulting firms.
Alcatel was duly awarded a mobile telephone contract by ICE in August 2001 valued at $149 million. ICE said last Februrary that it would not deal with Alcatel in future due to the bribery scandal, and later tried to claw back US$60 million from the firm.
Posted to the site on 24th September 2008