On July 6, 2010, the Department of Justice announced that Flavio Ricotti, an Italian citizen and former executive of Rancho Santa Margarita, California-based valve company Control Components Inc (“CCI”), had been extradited to the United States from Germany in connection with his alleged participation in a conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies as well as to officers and employees of foreign and domestic private companies. Ricotti was arrested on February 14, 2010, in Frankfurt, Germany, and arrived in the United States on July 2, 2010.
Ricotti and five other former executives of CCI were charged on April 8, 2009, in a 16-count indictment for their alleged roles in the foreign bribery scheme. Ricotti was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and the Travel Act, one count of violating the FCPA, and three counts of violating the Travel Act. For more information on the indictments, see our post here.
In related cases, Mario Covino, the former director or worldwide factory sales for CCI, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and admitted to causing the payment of approximately $1 million in bribes to officers and employees of several state-owned companies. Richard Morlock, CCI’s former finance director, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and admitted to causing the payment of approximately $628,000 in bribes to officers and employees of several state-owned companies. For more information on these guilty pleas, see our posts here and here.
Also, CCI pleaded guilty to a three count criminal information charging the company with conspiracy to violate the FCPA and the Travel Act, and two substantive violations of the FCPA. For more information on this, please see our post here.
DOJ Release: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/July/10-crm-774.html