A Bribery Scheme Hatched at the "Eggs Benedict Place"

The DOJ announced today (see here) that John Joseph O'Shea was recently arrested for his alleged role in a conspiracy to bribe Mexican foreign officials to secure contracts with the Comision Federal de Electridad ("CFE"), an apparent Mexican state-owned utility company (see here). In addition to charging conspiracy to violate the FCPA, the indictment contains twelve substantive FCPA charges (among other charges).

According to the unsealed indictment (see here), O'Shea was the General Manager of Texas Business A, a business that provides products and services to electrical utilities in a number of foreign markets. According to the indictment, one of O'Shea's responsibilities was approving payments to sales representatives.

According to the indictment, Texas Business A is a business unit of Subsidiary A (a company with its principal place of business in Sugar Land, Texas) and Subsidiary A, in turn, is a subsidiary of Corporation A (a company headquartered and incorporated in Switzerland with publicly-traded American Depositary Shares on the NYSE).

In other words, both Subsidiary A and Corporation A are subject to the FCPA and may be the focus of a forthcoming enforcement action. Also of note is that Mexican Company X, Intermediary Company O (a company incorporated in and headquartered in Mexico) and Intermediary Company S (a company incorporated in Panama and headquartered in Mexico) are all alleged to be "an agent of a domestic concern" under 78dd-2(h)(1). DOJ recently noted (see here) that it is willing to go after agents and intermediaries which facilitate bribe payments and the "agent of a domestic concern" designation would seem to be setting the table for a possible enforcement action against such companies as well.

According to the indictment, one customer Texas Business A did business with is CFE and officials N,J,C and G at CFE had influence over decisions concerning Texas Business A's contracts with CFE

(Sorry for the alphabet soup, but this is how the indictment reads).

According to the indictment, Texas Business A obtained multiple contracts with CFE while using Mexican Company X (including its principal, Fernando Maya Basurto) as its sales representative under several commission-based agreements.

The indictment alleges that O'Shea conspired and agreed with Basurto, Subsidiary A, Texas Business A, and the intermediary companies and others to make improper payments to Mexican "foreign officials" to obtain or retain business for Subsidiary A and Texas Business A in violation of the FCPA and that O'Shea did indeed offer, authorize, or make the improper payments indirectly through others to the CFE officials in violation of the FCPA.

According to the indictment, the payments assisted Texas Business A secure two contracts with CFE worth approximately $81 million in revenue.

According to the indictment, the improper payments were concealed through a series of financial transactions, first to U.S. bank accounts in the name of Basurto and certain of his family members, then through false invoices received from Basurto in the names of the intermediary companies, and then to the "foreign officials."

According to the indictment, after O'Shea was terminated from Texas Business A, he, Basurto, and others tried to cover up their conduct after learning that Corporation A had disclosed the suspected payments to the DOJ, SEC and Mexican authorities.

In describing O'Shea's cover up, the indictment states, "On or about April 27, 2005, O'Shea sent Basurto an e-mail that read, in part, "It seems my lawyer thinks it is OK to use a private e-mail such as yahoo, as it would seem much more difficult for anyone to get the exchanges - if it is a company email it belongs to them. I believe [sic] we should alter opur [sic] normal routine; meaning not meet at the 'eggs benedict' place."

Consistent with DOJ's recent statements on this issue, the indictment seeks from O'Shea forfeiture of approximately $3 million in proceeds derived from his improper conduct.

As noted in the DOJ's release, Basurto recently pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information (see here) charging him with conspiracy to violate the FCPA. The DOJ news release also notes that a Mexican citizen had pleaded guilty for his role in the bribery scheme.