Alcatel Agreed To Pay
$134.7 Million To Avoid U.S. Prosecution In
Costa Rica Bribery Case
Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to pay us$134.7
million and change internal procedures in
order to avoid U.S. prosecution for alleged
bribes that the company paid, according to a
Bloomberg report, which cited a company
regulatory filing.
The bribes were supposedly paid in Costa
Rica, involving a number of high ranking
state telecom officials and Costa Rica's
former president, Miguel Angel Rodriguez.
The case in Costa Rica is known as the
ICE-ALCATEL case that is still under
investigation, but has resulted in the
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE), completely cutting its commercial
relationship with the French telecom, that
included transferring hundreds of thousands
of cellular lines from the Alcatel installed
network to the Ericsson.
Alcatel is also alleged to have paid bribes
in Taiwan and Kenya.
The Justice Department said it would defer
prosecution of the company on charges that
it violated the internal controls and books
and records provision of the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act under the agreement, according
to the filing.
Alcatel will also enter into a three-year
probationary period and agree to a French
anti-corruption monitor.
The company will pay a us$92 million
criminal fine over three years and enter
into a consent decree with the SEC and pay
us$45.4 million.
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