Hyderabad: Ukrainian industrialist Dmitry Firtash, mastermind behind the $18.5-million scheme to bribe Indian officials, allegedly met with Indian government officials, including the then chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to discuss the project and its progress, and authorised payment of at least $18.5 million in bribes to both state and Central government officials to secure the approval of licenses for the project.
He also allegedly directed his subordinates to create documents to make it falsely appear that money transferred for the purpose of paying these bribes was transferred for legitimate commercial purposes, and he appointed various subordinates to oversee efforts to obtain the licenses through bribery.
The other four accused are Andras Knopp, 75, a Hungarian businessman, Suren Gevorgyan, 40, of Ukraine, Gajendra Lal, 50, an Indian national and permanent resident of the US and Periyasamy Sunderalingam, aka “Sunder”, 60, of Sri Lanka.
The indictment lists 57 transfers of funds between various entities, some controlled by Group DF, in various amounts totaling more than $10.59 million from April 28, 2006, through July 13, 2010.
The indictment, which was returned under seal in June 2013, was made public on Wednesday, a few weeks after prosecutors said they planned to ask Austria to extradite Mr Firtash.
US prosecutors said they had jurisdiction over the case because the defendants used US financial institutions to transfer the bribes and because the defendants had planned to sell the titanium products to an unnamed American company based in Chicago. Some of the defendants were also charged with violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribes to officials of foreign governments in exchange for business.
“The charges against six foreign nationals announced today send the unmistakable message that we will root out and attack foreign bribery and bring to justice those who improperly influence foreign officials, wherever we find them,” said US acting assistant attorney general David O’Neil.
