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Friday, March 29, 2024

Exec pleads guilty to Greek bribe

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A former executive with the California-based valve company Control Components pleaded guilty Friday to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

David Edmonds, 59 of San Clemente, Calif., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, Calif. to a one-count superseding indictment charging him with paying a bribe to a Greek government official.

CCI designed and manufactured service control valves for use in the nuclear, oil, gas and power generation industries in Greece.

According to the plea arrangement, Edmonds can be sentenced to 15 months in prison; three years of supervised release with conditions to be fixed by the court; up to a $20,000 fine; no amount of restitution; and a $100 special assessment.

Edmonds was the vice president of Worldwide Customer Service at CCI from 2000-2007 and oversaw CCI's replacement parts sales and the servicing of existing valves.

Court documents state that CCI sought to obtain a contract for replacement valves and the servicing of existing valves at the Amynteon and Aghios Dimitrios power plants. Around May 9, 2000, a CCI employee allegedly sought permission from Edmonds, in an e-mail, to pay approximately $45,000 to a power plant representative because he "has obligations to pay some friends with the commission."

Edmonds was alleged to have responded in an e-mail as follows: "I approve the 15 percent commission to (the representative) for (the Amynteon and Aghios Dimitrios)."

He allegedly failed to ascertain the nature of the commission and the suspected recipient in order to determine whether the proposed commission payment might be made to an employee at Public Power for the purpose of securing Public Power's business.

The government alleges that Edmonds knew that the business practices might lead to a bribe. The government also alleges that while Edmonds did not know about the prohibitions of the FCPA, he was aware that the law forbids making an undisclosed payment for the purpose of securing a customer's business.

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