A&O Shearman FCPA Digest | United States v. Data Systems & Solutions LLC (E.D. Va. 2012)

Source Documents

Foreign Official
Officials at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, a state-owned nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

Nature of Business
Data Systems & Solutions LLC (“DS&S”), a U.S. limited liability company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, provides design, installation, maintenance, and other services to nuclear power and fossil fuel plants.

Influence to be Obtained
Starting in 1999 and through June 2004, DS&S directly and through third-party subcontractors paid bribes and other things of value to officials at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in exchange for multi-million instrumentation and controls contracts. These bribes were funneled through third-party subcontractors located in the United States and abroad. The subcontractors, in turn, made repeated payments to high-level officials at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant via check or wire transfer. The payments were often disguised through fictitious scopes of work and payment of above-market rates to employees of the subcontractors. DS&S also provided gifts, entertainment, and payment of domestic and international travel to employees of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in exchange for those employees’ agreements to secure contracts for DS&S.

Enforcement
On June 18, 2012, Data Systems & Solutions entered into a two-year deferred prosecution agreement under which DS&S agreed to pay a fine of $8.82 million, to take remedial actions to implement and correct deficiencies in its compliance program, and to make periodic reports to the DOJ regarding its remedial efforts. The DOJ noted that entry into the DPA was supported by DS&S’s extraordinary cooperation and extensive remediation that it had undertaken during and after an internal investigation.