BENGALURU: Former Cognizant COO Sridhar Thiruvengadam has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $50,000 following a Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) order that discovered that 4 firm executives, together with the previous, authorised a bribe cost in a video-conference, which violated the Overseas Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The case pertains to Cognizant’s 2.7-million-sqft KITS campus on Outdated Mahabalipuram Street in Chennai that deliberate to make use of 17,500 folks. A senior authorities official of Tamil Nadu demanded a $2-million bribe from the development agency accountable for the campus. The bribery uncovered Cognizant to civil and prison legal responsibility with the corporate paying $25 million in penalties in addition to incurring $79 million extra in prices associated to its inner investigation.

The SEC order stated Thiruvengadam devised a scheme to cowl it up within the firm’s books. Thiruvengadam was Cognizant’s COO from late 2013 till he was positioned on administrative go away in late 2016. Cognizant accepted Schwartz. Coburn and Schwartz channelled funds to L&T, the development firm accountable for the KITS campus.

The lawsuit alleged that to disguise Cognizant’s reimbursement to L&T of the bribes the latter paid to authorities officers, Schwartz and Coburn agreed that L&T would submit many fraudulent change order requests on the finish of the undertaking totalling $2 million. TOI has seen a replica of the order that stated Cognizant engaged the contracting agency to construct the ability and procure all essential authorities permits. Thiruvengadam’s resignation final yr. The SEC order states that Thiruvengadam later helped to hide the cost by signing false sub-certifications. It discovered that Thiruvengadam violated the FCPA’s inner accounting controls and record-keeping provisions. “Without admitting or denying the findings, Thiruvengadam agreed to pay a civil penalty of $50,000,” the order stated.