DoJ sues US firm for bribing Indian PSU executives for power contracts
07 Jul 2010
The US Department of Justice is suing a California-based valve company for having allegedly bribed officials of several Indian PSUs including BHEL and NTPC to bag lucrative contracts, mostly for tools used in the construction of power plants.
Some prominent Indian companies that figure in the list besides BHEL and NTPC are Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Haryana State Electricity Board, and Bhilai Electric, according to documents submitted by the US Department of Justice to a US court.
According to observers it may be possible that the sealed court documents may possibly contain names and details of the beneficiaries, but no names were immediately known.
On 31 June, 2009, California-based Control Component Inc (CCI) pleaded guilty before a US court of having resorted to bribery in 36 countries from 2003 to 2007.
Besides India, the company is also said to have indulged in unfair practices to win contracts China, UAE and Qatar.
The court documents detail India-related payments made between 2004 and 2007.