Bribery

Alstom joins bribery probe, claims victim status

Alstom SA, the world's third-largest power plant builder, allied itself with French prosecutors in a bribery investigation by formally claiming it was a victim of corruption.

French prosecutors opened an investigation in November into whether the Paris-based engineering company paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to gain customers in Asia and South America between 1995 and 2003.

“The judges approved the change in status today,” said Alstom spokesman Philippe Kasse in a telephone interview today. “By joining the inquiry as a civil party, we'll have access to the case files.”

As a civil party, Alstom is considered to have suffered direct harm from the crimes being investigated. Paris judges Xaviere Simeoni and Renaud Van Ruymbeke are looking into three allegations, two covering misuse of company funds and the third covering corrupting public officials outside of France, prosecutors' spokeswoman Isabelle Montagne said on May 6.

Paris prosecutors began their probe after receiving a report from Swiss authorities. Civil-party status in France will enable the company to review the files from both investigations, according to Kasse.

Calls today by Bloomberg News to Montagne and Alstom lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve for comment weren't immediately returned.

Alstom, based near Paris, has installed power stations that generate a fifth of the world's electricity, built two-thirds of the world's high-speed trains and supplied subway cars used by commuters in Paris, London, New York and Sao Paulo.

Its larger rivals in the power-plant business are General Electric Co., based in Fairfield, Connecticut, and Munich-based Siemens AG.

(Published by Bloomberg 16, 2008)