Alcatel-Lucent To Pay
$10 Million in Costa Rica Case
By Leslie Josephs
(Reuters) - Telecom equipment maker
Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) said on Thursday it
would pay us$10 million to settle a
corruption case in Costa Rica.
Alcatel-Lucent was accused of paying
kickbacks to former Costa Rican President
Miguel Angel Rodriguez and other government
officials in return for a 2001 contract
worth us$149 million to supply cellular
telephone equipment.
Rodriguez, who was in office from 1998 to
2002, is set to go on trial this year for
corruption. He denies any wrongdoing.
The case marks the first time in Costa
Rica's history that a foreign corporation
has agreed to pay the government damages for
corruption, Solicitor General Ana Lorena
Brenes said.
"Alcatel recognizes that it did not have
sufficient control of its officials and (it
will) pay the state," said Brenes, who led
the case against the company, in an
interview with Reuters.
Alcatel-Lucent spokesman Marco Malfavon
confirmed the agreement.
Brenes said Alcatel admitted its executives
paid bribes to officials of the Central
American nation's state-run
telecommunications company in exchange for a
contract to install 400,000 cell phone
lines.
Some $7 million was paid out in the scheme,
including $800,000 that went directly to
President Rodriguez, the government says.
A former Alcatel employee pleaded guilty in
U.S. court in October 2008 to making more
than $2.5 million in corrupt payments to
various Costa Rican officials.
The Franco-American company has been
struggling to turn around its business
during the global economic downturn that has
hit the telecom equipment sector hard.
Alcatel has yet to generate regular free
cash flow since it was formed in a merger in
2006. (Reporting by Leslie Josephs; Editing
Bernard Orr and Tim Dobbyn)
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