Cognizant Technology Solutions, a technology services company, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $25 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Additionally, two former executives of Cognizant were charged for their roles in facilitating the payment of millions of dollars in a bribe to an Indian government official.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint alleges that in 2014, a senior government official in India demanded a $2 million bribe from the construction firm responsible for building Cognizant’s 2.7 million square foot campus in Chennai, India. As alleged in the complaint, Cognizant’s President Gordon Coburn and Chief Legal Officer Steven Schwartz authorized the contractor to pay the bribe and directed their subordinates to conceal the bribe by doctoring the contractor’s change orders.
