Louis Berger bribery case: 2 ex-officials of company sentenced by US court

Two former officials of Louis Berger were today sentenced to two years in probation by a US court in connection with a long-running bribery scheme to secure contracts by bribing government officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait, the Justice Department said.

Several politicians and government officials in Goa and Assam are under scanner of Indian investigating agencies in this corruption case.

The two former officials of Louis Berger – Richard Hirsch, 62, of Philippines and James McClung, 60, of UAE – had earlier pleaded guilty.

Hirsch was sentenced by US District Judge Mary L Cooper to two years of probation and fined $10,000.

Hirsch previously served as the senior vice-president responsible for the company's operations in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, a statement said.

McClung was sentenced by Cooper on July 7 to one year plus one day in jail. McClung previously served as the senior vice-president responsible for the company's operations in India and Vietnam, said the Department of Justice.

McClung and Hirsch had pleaded guilty before Cooper on July 17 last year in Trenton federal court to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive count of violating the FCPA.

According to court documents, from 1998 through 2010, Louis Berger International (LBI) and its employees, including Hirsch and McClung, orchestrated $3.9 million in bribe payments to foreign officials in various countries in order to secure government contracts.

To conceal the payments, the conspirators made payments under the guise of "commitment fees", "counterpart per diems" and other payments to third-party vendors.

In reality, the payments were intended to fund bribes to foreign officials who had awarded contracts to LBI or who supervised its work on contracts, the defendants admitted.

McClung cooperated with the government's investigation by identifying other executives at LBI who had knowledge of bribery.

Some of the information provided by McClung was also helpful to the government's successful prosecution of LBI's former CEO, Derrish Wolff, who pleaded guilty to accounting fraud in December 2014, the Justice Department said in a statement.