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Criminal Case Against Former Executives Of Technology Company Dismissed
04/08/2025On April 2, 2025, the Department of Justice moved to dismiss with prejudice its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) case against two former executives of a technology solutions company (“Company”). The executives were accused of authorizing a $2 million bribe to an Indian official in 2014.[1] The district court dismissed the matter with prejudice on Thursday, April 3, 2025.
The DOJ moved to dismiss the matter based on its most recent assessment of an executive order issued by President Trump on February 10, 2025 to further American economic competitiveness and national security interests (“Executive Order”).[2] The Executive Order directs the Attorney General, among other things, to review all existing FCPA investigations or enforcement actions and take appropriate action with respect to such matters.
In February of this year, the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey performed the review called for by the Executive Order and concluded that the appropriate action was to proceed to trial. Thereafter on March 4, 2025, one day before the trial was to commence, his successor requested an adjournment to perform the same analysis. That analysis led to the recent dismissal.
The indictment alleged that the two executives, who served as the president and the chief legal officer of the Company, approved the payment of the bribe to secure a permit for the construction of a company campus in Chennai, India. The alleged bribe was disguised as a change order request and routed through a contracting firm that worked on the project. The executives also allegedly falsified the Company’s books and records and circumvented its internal controls to conceal the bribe.
The dismissal of the criminal case contrasts with the outcome of the parallel civil proceedings brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the Company and its former executives. In February 2019, the Company agreed to pay $25 million to settle the SEC’s claims that it violated the anti-bribery, books-and-records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA.[3] The SEC filed a civil complaint against the former executives, which is still pending.[4]
The government’s dismissal of proceedings is consistent with its previously announced change in approach toward FCPA enforcement.
[1]U.S. v. Coburn et al., No. 19-cr-00120 (MEF) (D.N.J. 2019)
[2]Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security – The White House
[3]United States v. Gordon J. Coburn and Steven Schwartz, No. 19-120 (D.N.J. Feb. 14, 2019).
[4]SEC v. Gordon J. Coburn and Steven E. Schwartz, Case No. 2:19-cv-5820 (D.N.J. Feb. 15, 2019).
