WASHINGTON, DC: November 16, 2015. Alstom, the French power and transportation company, is to pay a record $772,290,000 fine to resolve criminal charges relating to at least $75 million in bribes to government officials in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Bahamas and Taiwan.

Alstom and several subsidiaries pleaded guilty last year to violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by bribing government officials to secure more than US$4 billion in transport and power contracts that netted the companies a total of US$300 million in profits.

In Indonesia, Alstom bribed a high-ranking member of the Indonesian Parliament and high-ranking members of Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the state-owned electricity company, to secure contracts valued at approximately US$375 million.

The various companies also attempted to conceal their bribes by using consultants who were refered to as "Mr. Geneva," "Mr. Paris," "London," "Quiet Man" and "Old Friend."

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the sentence reflects Alstom's failure to voluntarily disclose the behavior of its employees; a refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation for several years; the breadth of its misconduct; prior criminal behavior and a lack of an effective compliance and ethics program.

To date, the DoJ has charged four Alstom executives including Frederic Pierucci, former vice president of global boiler sales; David Rothschild and William Pomponi, former vice presidents of regional sales; and Lawrence Hoskins, Alstom's former senior vice president for the Asia region who is awaiting trial next year. Earlier this year Asem Elgawhary, general manager of an organization working for the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, was sentenced to 42 months in prison and fined US$5.2 million.

On November 02 Alstom completed the sale of its power generation business to GE for approximately €12.4 billion and announced it is "entirely refocused on rail transport".