Alcatel Case: No Joy for ICE

Federal Judge Marcia Cooke accepted the plea deal between the U.S. Justice Department and the French telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent to pay fines totaling $92 million but left the Costa Rican company ICE out in the cold.

ICE lawyers claimed the agreement was too lenient and that ICE, as a victim, was entitled to some compensation. But the judge accepted the claim of fraud prosecutor Charles Duross that ICE's former executives had their hands in the cookie jar and that the state-owned company was not a victim.

Previously, Alcatel made a similar agreement with the Security and Exchange Commission to pay $45 million in fines. The bribery case arose from bribes paid  to officials in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia and Taiwan. In this country, ex-President Miguel Angel Rodriguez and other officials were sentenced to five to 20 years for their part in the scandal. (See previous stories.)

The Costa Rican sentences have yet to be confirmed by an appeals court, But the U.S. Federal judge's decision could be appealed if ICE wanted but that appears unlikely. A civil suit could be filed but that, too, is a costly option.

Alcatel was prosecuted under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices law, charged with bribing Costa Rican officials to obtain a government contract for 400,000 cell phone lines. Three Alcatel subsidiaries also pleaded guilty to the charges and paid $1.5 million in fines.

Under the agreement deal, Alcatel must abide by various condition to make sure it sins no more and must hire an independent company to monitor their dealings. If the company meets its obligations, the case will be dropped in three years.

During the entire scandal, only one Alcatel executive was prosecuted by the U.S.: Christian Sapsizian turned prosecution witness and received a reduced two-year prison sentence from Miami's Federal District court in 2008. He has since been released.