EVIDENCE MISSING…
Documents/ emails obtained by the FBI authorities from LBG in r/o JICA Project
Report of Financial audit of LBG India, if any, conducted by its U.S. headquarters.
Any evidence obtained regarding unaccounted payments made by LBG in r/o JICA project
Statement of James McClung recorded by U.S. authorities.
Crucial evidence in Louis Berger Case sent by United States government goes missing
U.S. says Indian authorities WITHDREW request interviewing James McLung, key accused arrested in bribery case there
Churchill Alemao & Digambar Kamat are the main accused in the LBG case
SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANAJI: In a major development just ahead of the Goa Assembly elections, the agencies investigating the Louis Berger bribery and money laundering case have said that they have not received the crucial evidence from the United States.
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, who was the Chief Minister then, and Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao, who was PWD Minister, are the key accused in bribery.
While Digambar got anticipatory bail, Churchill has already spent 90 days in jail.
Moreover, another shocking part is the United States has said in its file that India, through the Goa government, has asked for withdrawal of the request to withdraw interview Mr James McClung, who was arrested and convicted by U.S. authorities for bribery Goan politicians and officials in Louis Berger case.
James McClung was one of the two former executives of Louis Berger International (LBI), a New Jersey-based construction management company, sentenced to a long-running bribery case to secure government construction management contracts by bribing officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait.
McClung previously served as the senior vice president responsible for the company’s operations in India and Vietnam. On July 17, 2015, McClung and Hirsch each pleaded guilty before Judge Cooper in Trenton federal court to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive count of violating the FCPA.
E.D. says no evidence was received…
The Enforcement Directorate (E.D.) office, on December 21, 2021, has written to the Office of Inetrenation Affairs, Department of Justice, USA, saying it has not received any evidence.
“The Directorate of Enforcement has never ever withdrawn the request for interview of James McClung; the Directorate of Enforcement has repeatedly requested for interrogation/ interview of Mr McClung as per the questionnaire mentioned in the Letter Rogatory forwarded to the U.S. authorities. Moreover, it is hereby reiterated that the testimony of Mr James McClung is crucial for defending teh Directorate’s case in the ongoing criminal trial proceedings in India,” E.D. says.
Further, E.D. says, in the contest of the “final results package containing evidentiary material sent by U.S. authorities on 13.10.2021”, it is submitted that the same has not been received by the Directorate of Enforcement to date.
The U.S. embassy, in reply, has said that “there were numerous calls between U.S. and Indian authorities, in which, according to notes on the file, due to age of the case, Indian authorities withdrew their request for an interview of McClung. Therefore we sent a final result package containing evidentiary materials on October 13, 2021.”
The E.D. had asked for following documents –
Documents/ emails obtained by the FBI authorities from LBG in r/o JICA Project
Report of Financial audit of LBG India, if any, conducted by its U.S. headquarters.
Any evidence obtained regarding unaccounted payments made by LBG in r/o JICA project
Statement of James McClung recorded by U.S. authorities.
The Ministry of External Affairs Affairs wrote to U.S. authorities saying that Louis Berger is being fast-tracked as per the directions of the High Court.
“The trial Court (PMLA Special Court) was directed by the H.C. to conclude the trial in one year. However, in the trial of the predicate offence, during recording testimonies of the witness at the trial court, Satyakam Mohanty, vice-president of Louis Berger Group, was declared deceased. This makes the testimony of James McClung, senior vice-president, M/s Louis Berger Inc, inevitable/ crucial for p[rosecution in PMLA case,” it said.
“In view of the above, it is requested that the progress made with the U.S. authorities with regards to the interrogation of Mr James McClung may please be communicated at the earliest as the trial in PMLA Court is in an advanced stage. It is also requested to suggest whether Indian officials can visit the USA to record the testimony of Mr McClung in order to testify in the case or can be interrogated via video conferencing etc.,” MEA said.
The Louis Berger Case….
On August 7, 2015, ED registered an enforcement case information report against ‘ministers’ of the Goa government, Louis Berger and others in 2010, to probe the financial angle. This happened two months after the crime branch initiated a probe in the case.
Prosecution had said that Kamat, the then chief minister of Goa in connivance with the then PWD minister of Goa Alemao was responsible for holding the file relating to the awarding of JICA consultants work in Goa without justifiable reasons.
Prosecution had further alleged that Kamat was also criminal conspirator in concealing the main noting file of awarding of JICA consultancy in Goa in connivance with the other co-accused Anand Wachasunder, the then JICA-Goa project director and Alemao.
Prosecution had said that Kamat had received Rs 1.20 crore and Alemao received Rs 75 lakh from M/s Louis Berger International Inc as illegal gratification.
In United States, from 1998 through 2010, LBI and its employees, including Hirsch and McClung, orchestrated $3.9 million in bribe payments to foreign officials in various countries in order to secure government contracts.
To conceal the payments, the conspirators made payments under the guise of “commitment fees,” “counterpart per diems” and other payments to third-party vendors. In reality, the defendants admitted that the payments were intended to fund bribes to foreign officials who had awarded contracts to LBI or supervised LBI’s work on contracts.
McClung cooperated with the government’s investigation by identifying other executives at LBI who had knowledge of bribery. Some of the information provided by McClung was also helpful to the government’s successful prosecution of LBI’s former CEO, Derrish Wolff, who pleaded guilty to accounting fraud in December 2014.
