Iris Bennett obtained an NPA for Florida Defense Company
IAP Worldwide Services Inc, a Florida defense and government contractor was represented by Iris Bennett of Smith Pachter with her partner Joseph Covington relating to a criminal investigation surrounding the company’s involvement in a conspiracy to pay bribes to officials in Kuwait to secure a government contracts in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Bennett and her partner successfully negotiated a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice for IAP this last June to resolve criminal charges against IAP. Iris Bennett focuses her practice on investigations and white collar criminal matters. Before private practice she clerked for two federal judges and served as a federal public defender in the District of Columbia.
The company agreed to pay a $7.1 million dollar penalty. The agreement also called for continued cooperation by IAP and mandates that the company adopt a strict anti-corruption stance and create appropriate structures, systems and procedures to prevent corruption. The company will also regularly need to report to the Criminal Division regarding compliance.
An ex-VP for the company, James Rama, was the only individual charged and he pled guilty to one charge of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). No other high level executives were individually charged which was a strong focus in the defense argument at sentencing that took place this last October when Rama was ultimately sentenced to a significant jail term. Read about the sentencing here. One has to wonder what the outcome would have been to this company and its more high level executives post Yates memo if they hadn’t resolved this case in June?
The drama all began in 2004, when the Kuwaiti government rolled out a plan called the Kuwait Security Program (KSP), which was designed to help national agencies surveil using closed-circuit TV. The project would involve a two-phase roll out. First would come a feasibility test, then an installation period. The Kuwaiti Ministry of the Interior helped choose contractors and planned to collect substantially more revenue in the installation phase (Phase II) than in the feasibility test phase (Phase I).
However, Rama and IAP (who later admitted to these facts in the non-prosecution agreement) made a play to work on the first phase so they could secretly tweak the requirements for the second phase to favor IAP and thus give the company a competitive advantage when it came to bidding. They created a fake company (“Ramaco”) to try to win the Phase I business without disclosing conflict of interest and won that bid, which was worth $4 million. Rama and IAP then diverted approximately $1,783,688 of that money to a consultant to bribe Kuwaiti officials and then funneled money to IAP from Ramaco through different accounts and contacts.
The resolution is certainly a job well done by Iris Bennett and her partner. Congrats!