Corruption
Poland charges five in latest Alstom bribery case
DEC. 30, 2014, 4:02 PM
© AFP/File Tobias
Schwarz
The
company logo of French engineering firm Alstom is pictured during a trade fair
in Berlin, September 23, 2014
Warsaw (AFP) - Polish
prosecutors on Tuesday said they have charged five people in a corruption case
involving transport contracts won by Alstom, just days after the United States
fined the French industrial giant a record penalty for bribery.
Two ex-managers at
Alstom Konstal -- the firm's Polish subsidiary -- and three former Warsaw
municipal employees are suspected of links to three contracts for delivering
108 subway cars and 122 tramways to the Polish capital in 1998-2002, according
to prosecutors.
Prosecutors in the
western city of Wroclaw told AFP that French justice officials had been slow to
cooperate in the investigation launched in 2008.
A spokesman for Alstom
Konstal declined to comment on the ongoing case.
The US Justice
Department announced last week that Alstom would plead guilty and pay a record
$772.3-million (635.2-million-euro) penalty in a wide-ranging foreign bribery
case.
Alstom admitted to
bribing officials to win power and transportation projects from state-owned
entities around the world, including the Bahamas, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi
Arabia and Taiwan.
Fresh corruption charges
have also been brought against a British subsidiary of Alstom.
London's Serious Fraud
Office has filed corruption charges against the unit and two employees in
securing a contract for a power plant in Lithuania, according to court
documents seen by AFP.
It was the second Alstom
unit to face charges in Britain this year, after Britain's SFO in July launched
proceedings against an Alstom unit over alleged corruption in India, Poland and
Tunisia.
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