Four Sentenced For Vietnam Graft

The DOJ said today that three siblings who were former employees of Nexus Technologies Inc., and a former partner in the Philadelphia-based company, were sentenced late yesterday for their roles in a conspiracy to bribe Vietnamese government officials.

The president and owner of the company, Nam Nguyen, was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to serve two years of supervised release following the prison term. His brother, An Nguyen, was sentenced to nine months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. His sister, Kim Nguyen, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

Joseph Lukas, a former partner with Nexus, also was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. He pleaded guilty in June 2009 to conspiracy and to violating the FCPA and agreed to cooperate with the DOJ.

Nexus, Nam Nguyen, 54, of Houston and Vietnam, Kim Nguyen, 41, of Philadelphia, and An Nguyen, 34, of Philadelphia, were charged in a superseding indictment in October 2009 with conspiracy, violations of the FCPA, violations of the Travel Act in connection with commercial bribes, and money laundering.

Nexus pleaded guilty in March to all the charges filed against the company in the superseding indictment, and agreed to cease operations and dissolve.

Nexus and the Nguyens admitted that from 1999 to 2008 they paid bribes of more than $250,000 to Vietnamese government officials in exchange for contracts. Privately-held Nexus sold third-party underwater mapping and bomb containment equipment, helicopter parts, chemical detectors, satellite communication parts and air tracking systems.

In March this year, Nam and An Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiracy, substantive FCPA violations, violating the Travel Act and money laundering, and Kim Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiracy, substantive FCPA violations, and money laundering.