The US Securities & Exchange Commission ("SEC") kicked off the year by levying $3.4 million in US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") fines against Florida-based engineering and construction firm The PBSJ Corporation ("PBSJ") and fining one of PBSJ's former officers $500,000.  According to the SEC, the former PBSJ officer, Walid Hatoum, offered to bribe a foreign official to access confidential sealed-bid and pricing information to enable PBSJ to win bids for a hotel resort development project in Morocco and a light rail transit project in Qatar.  The SEC did not go to court for the case, entering into a two-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") with PBSJ and an administrative order against Hatoum.  WS Atkins plc acquired PBSJ in 2010, and the company is now known as The Atkins North America Holdings Corporation.

In other FCPA news, a federal grand jury in Philadelphia indicted Dmitrij Harder, the former owner and president of Chestnut Consulting, Inc. ("Chestnut Consulting"), for bribing an official of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("EBRD").  According to the criminal indictment, Mr. Harder allegedly paid more than USD $3.5 million to an EBRD official in exchange for the approval of financing for two of Chestnut Consulting's corporate clients by the EBRD.  Chestnut Consulting allegedly earned about USD $8 million in "success fees" as a result of the EBRD's approval of the two applications, according to the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ"). 

In the U.K, Graham Hill, a former director of Alstom S.A. ("Alstom"), was charged by a British court with corruption and conspiring to dishonestly obtain services in relation to transportation contracts in India and Poland.  Two of the charges relate to Mr. Hill corruptly giving or agreeing to give payments totaling INR 23,020,000 to an officials of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited.  According to the allegations, the improper payments were given as inducements or rewards for favoring Alstom in relation to the award or performance of a contract with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.  Meanwhile, two individuals were acquitted of charges in relation to the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") investigation of News Corporation ("News Corp.").  Former employees John Edwards and John Troup were acquitted of all charges related to making improper payments to London police in exchange for classified information that was allegedly used in tabloid stories.