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With A Compliance Officer Like That, Who Needs Shady Employees?

By Ethisphere.com

The ongoing Alstom bribery probe has already expanded to at least four continents and possibly uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, but insult was added to injury when Swiss prosecutors announced that Alstom’s former compliance officer was arrested for operating a slush fund at the heart of the case, according to a story by The Wall Street Journal. On top of that, Swiss authorities believe several other high level employees were involved in the scheme and say that “Alstom officials responding to the inquiry aren’t cooperating fully.” Not a great way to prove innocence.

The case began in 2004 focusing on alleged illegal payments made by Alstom, creator of the TGV train (pictured), from 1995 to 2003, but has since expanded to payments made up to 2008. The investigation has expanded to payments made in Italy, Brazil, Zambia and Mexico, according to the WSJ article.

Alstom’s Compliance Officer, reported to be Bruno A. Kaelin, was in charge of a Swiss Slush Fund that allegedly paid bribes on behalf of the company to earn lucrative contracts. One such alleged payment was a $6.8 million payout to earn a $45 million contract for a Sao Paolo subway.

It remains to be seen how much the company will ultimately be fined (millions of dollars have already been seized), but it’s likely that between the payouts the company made and the fines that it could receive, Alstom will end up dishing out far more money than it earned from making the alleged bribes in the first place.

Full post as published by Ethisphere Blog - Good. Smart. Business. Profit. on September 17, 2008 (boomark / email).