Washington: Louis Berger International Inc. , New Jersey, US-based construction management firm embroiled in a $17.1-million bribery probe, has been charged with bribing Indian officials to win two major water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati. The $976,630 bribe for the Goa project included payments to a minister, details of which have not been disclosed by the US department of justice.

On Friday, former executives Richard Hirsch and James McClung pleaded guilty in a federal court in Trenton, New Jersey. In 2010, a related company, Louis Berger Group, paid $69.3 million to defer prosecution of a criminal case related to overbilling for reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other contracts.

The Morristown, New Jersey-based company reported the bribes to the justice department and spent more than $25 million since 2010 on “new internal controls, new policies and procedures, and comprehensive systems investments, including a new global accounting system", said Louis Berger chairman Nicholas Masucci in a statement. “Today’s settlement is the critical final milestone in our reform, as it was important for us to take responsibility for the historic actions of former managers and close the chapter on the company’s pre-2010 era," Masucci said.

An independent audit committee now oversees a compliance and ethics department, while employees can report suspect conduct through a global helpline, according to the statement. “We are a much more efficient, responsible and transparent company today than we were five years ago," Masucci said.

As part of the overbilling case, three former executives pleaded guilty, including Derish Wolff, the former chief executive officer. Wolff was sentenced in May to 12 months of home confinement. He was 79 at the time of his sentencing.

The FCPA bars corporate employees or their agents from paying bribes to government officials to obtain or retain business or to secure an improper advantage.

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