The Serious Fraud Office Bribery Charges Against Alstom

"From this autumn, we will start to see cases adopted by us, under our recalibrated focus on top tier work, coming to trial...we have much in the pipeline."

David Green CB QC, Director of the SFO, addressing the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime on 2 September 2014

One such case is the SFO's bribery case, being brought on pre-Bribery Act era law, against a subsidiary of the French headquartered engineering company, Alstom.

This month formal charges have been placed against Alstom, in which it has been accused by the Serious Fraud Office of paying bribes to officials in various countries totalling more than €6 million in order to win contracts for the provision of transport in India, Tunisia and Poland.

The charges have been laid against Alstom's UK arm, Alstom Network UK, who face six counts of corruption and conspiracy, which include allegations that the company hid payments using consultancy agreements.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the SFO alleges that Alstom bribed officials or agents of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by paying nearly 20 million Rupees to a company called Indo European Ventures in 2001 and another €3 million to another company, Global King Technology in 2002. The SFO claims that the payments were made "as inducements or rewards for showing favour to the Alstom Group in relation to the award or performance of a contract".

On a side note following initial reports in Indian media which suggested that both the Indian Government and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation knew nothing of the charges, the Indian Government is reported to now be approaching the SFO for relevant details concerning the case.

The SFO further alleges that in Poland Alstom paid €824,000 to officials in 2001 in exchange for selling 62 trams to Tramwaje Wasrszawskie, and disguising the bribes as payments that formed part of the consultancy agreements with Fagax Engineering and Kavan.

Prosecutors allege a similar conspiracy in Tunisia where Alstom apparently paid €2.4 million to government officials in order to secure a contract to provide 30 trams and infrastructure work in Tunis, by paying an entity called Construction et Gestion NEVCO.

The current proceedings only involve charges against Alstom Network UK, but the SFO has written to a number of former employees including foreign nationals to inform them that it intends to charge them with corruption offences over the next year.

The SFO has, we are told, been investigating Alstom...