Data Systems & Solutions LLC (DS&S) of Reston, Virginia agreed today with the DOJ to pay a criminal penalty of $8.82 million and enter into a two-year deferred prosecution agreement to resolve FCPA offenses.
DS&S is now known as Optimized Systems and Solutions LLC, which is a subsidiary of U.K.-based Rolls-Royce plc. DS&S provided design, installation, maintenance and other services at nuclear and fossil fuel power plants. Only DS&S was named in today’s enforcement action.
The DOJ’s two-count criminal information filed in the Eastern District of Virginia charged DS&S with conspiring to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions and a substantive FCPA count.
DS&S bribed officials employed by the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, a state-owned nuclear power plant in Lithuania, to win contracts to perform services for the plant. The bribes were ‘funneled through several subcontractors located in the United States and abroad,’ the DOJ said. The subcontractors in turn made repeated payments to high-level officials at Ignalina.
The DOJ said DS&S provided ‘extraordinary cooperation,’ including an ‘extensive, thorough and swift internal investigation.’
DS&S fired the officers and employees responsible for the corrupt payments, the DOJ said. And it put in place a tougher due diligence protocol for agents and subcontractors, including FCPA training for all of them.
The DOJ’s June 18, 2012 release is here.
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