Former Titan Executive Pleads Guilty to Role in Benin Bribery
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the former president of the Titan Corporation's (Titan) Africa operations has plead guilty to a single count of falsifying a financial document in connection with his role in a $2 million bribery scheme in Benin. The bribe was intended to support the 2001 re-election campaign of then-President Mathieu Kerekou. According to the report, "Titan used the bribe to increase its management fee in a project to build and operate a telecommunications system in Benin."
The plea agreement represents the first publicly filed criminal charge against an individual in the five-year-old case involving violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In March 2005,Titan settled enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the anti-bribery, internal controls and books and records provisions of the FCPA. Titan agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of violating the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, one felony count for falsifying the books and records of Titan, and one felony count of preparing a false tax return. In addition, Titan paid $28.5 million in penalties, disgorgement of profits and prejudgment interest, the largest FCPA penalty paid to date.
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
