http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/516f276c-054d-11df-a85e-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
OOPS looks like they got busted buttering their bread.
Agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have arrested 22 executives, three of whom are British, in a sting operation, which prosecutors say exposed attempts to bribe an African minister of defence.
The arrests of the executives, all but one of whom were attending a conference for sellers of military and law enforcement products in Las Vegas, is the single largest investigation and prosecution by the Department of Justice of charges involving foreign bribery.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
FBI release - Jan-19..It also marks an important step up in transatlantic co-operation in such prosecutions, with US officials working with City of London police officers who searched seven British properties in their own investigation.
According to prosecutors, the 22 executives who were arrested had each sought to engage in a scheme to bribe a minister of defence of an unnamed African nation in order to win a portion of a $15m (€10.5m, £9m) deal to fit out the country’s presidential guard.
What the defendants did not know was that the “sales agent” whom they allegedly believed represented the minister, was an undercover FBI agent.
Executives named in the indictments worked for mostly US companies, as well as two British and one Israeli businesses, although those were not named. They sold products ranging from body armour to firearms and ammunition.
Although guns and ammunition were the focus of Tuesday’s announcement, DoJ officials said the pharmaceutical industry was an ongoing area of interest for bribery investigations.
