WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A former executive of the US-based Bechtel Corporation will serve more than three years in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for development contracts for Egypt’s state-owned electricity company, according to the US Department of Justice.
"The former principal vice president of Bechtel Corporation … was sentenced today to 42 months in prison for accepting $5.2 million in kickbacks to manipulate the competitive bidding process for state-run power contracts in Egypt," the US Justice Department said in a statement released on Monday.
The Bechtel executive, 73-year old Asem Elgawhary, a dual US and Egyptian citizen who resides in Potomac, Maryland, plead guilty to bribery, tax fraud and money laundering, according to the Justice Department.
From 1996 to 2011, Elgawhary was assigned to be the general manager of a joint venture between Bechtel and EEHC, Egypt’s state-owned power company, where he was responsible for soliciting bids and awarding contracts, the statement said.
Elgawhary accepted bribes from three subcontractors to ensure they were provided with "an unfair advantage in the bidding process," the Justice Department explained.
In December, one of the subcontractors, the French-based Alstom, reached an agreement with the Justice Department to pay $772 million in bribery penalties. Alstom had paid $75 million in bribes to secure $4 billion worth of projects from around the world, according to the Justice Department.
In 2006, the US inspector general in Iraq, after auditing a portion of $2.8 billion of Bechtel contracts, accused the firm of wasting US taxpayer dollars due to gross mismanagement.
Bechtel has nearly 53,000 employees and $40 billion in revenue. The corporation provides engineering, construction and project management services primarily to customers within the energy, defense and telecommunications industries, according to Bechtel's annual report.
