IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, March 6, 2020

Former Senior Alstom Executive Sentenced to Prison for Role in Money Laundering Scheme to Promote Foreign Bribery

A former senior executive with Alstom S.A. (Alstom), a French power and transportation company, was sentenced in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, to 15 months in prison today for his role in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme designed to promote violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John H. Durham of the District of Connecticut and Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacout of the FBI’s Los Angeles Office made the announcement.

Lawrence Hoskins, 69, was sentenced on charges of conspiracy and money laundering, following his conviction in November 2019, after a one-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who imposed today’s sentence. In addition to his prison term, Hoskins was fined $30,000.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Hoskins was a senior vice president for Alstom’s International Network, who engaged in a conspiracy to promote the payment of bribes to officials in Indonesia in exchange for assistance in securing a $118 million contract, known as the Tarahan project, for Alstom Power Inc. of Connecticut and its consortium partner, Marubeni Corporation, to provide power-related services for the citizens of Indonesia. The officials in Indonesia included a high-ranking member of the Indonesian Parliament and the President of Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the state-owned and state-controlled electricity company in Indonesia. To conceal the bribes, Hoskins and his co-conspirators retained two consultants purportedly to provide legitimate consulting services on behalf of Alstom Power Inc., in connection with the Tarahan project. The primary purpose of hiring the consultants was to conceal the bribes to Indonesian officials, the evidence showed.

The first consultant retained by Hoskins and other members of the conspiracy received hundreds of thousands of dollars in his Maryland bank account to be used to bribe the member of Parliament, the evidence showed. The consultant then transferred the bribe money to a bank account in Indonesia for the benefit of the official. According to emails admitted at trial, Hoskins and other co-conspirators discussed in detail the use of the first consultant to funnel bribes to the member of Parliament and the influence that the member of Parliament could exert over the Tarahan project, including referring to him as a “cashier.”

The trial evidence further showed that, in the fall of 2003, Hoskins and his co-conspirators determined that the first consultant was not effectively bribing key officials at PLN, who expressed concerns that the first consultant was just going to give them “pocket money” and “disappear” after Alstom Power Inc. won the project. As a result, the co-conspirators retained a second consultant to more effectively bribe PLN officials. Evidence revealed that Hoskins and his co-conspirators pressed Alstom Power Inc. to front-load the second consultant’s terms of payment in order to “get the right influence” due to upcoming elections. Hoskins and his co-conspirators were successful in securing the Tarahan project and subsequently made payments to the consultants for the purpose of bribing the Indonesian officials.

The FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office is investigating the case with assistance from the FBI’s Meriden, Connecticut, Resident Agency. The department appreciates the significant cooperation provided by its law enforcement colleagues in Indonesia, Switzerland's Office of the Attorney General and the United Kingdom, as well as authorities in France, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Taiwan.

Senior Deputy Chief Daniel S. Kahn and Assistant Chief Lorinda Laryea of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick of the District of Connecticut are prosecuting the case.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-senior-alstom-executive-sentenced-prison-role-money-laundering-scheme-promote-foreign

Anons and patriots with elderly parents and friends advise and protect them from Elder Fraud and Abuse. The numbers are staggering over $1 Billion stolen from the elderly this last year. We are here to serve and protect our family, friends and country

Attorney General William P. Barr Announces the Results of the Department of Justice's 2020 Elder Fraud Sweep and New Nursing Home Initiative

Today’s event highlights an issue I am personally very committed to: protecting our seniors from abuse. I am proud of the work the Department of Justice is doing to keep our seniors safe, and I am pleased to have several announcements to discuss today.

Additionally, I want to highlight what the Department of Justice is doing to combat two of the most pressing threats our elderly citizens are facing.

Let me start with the problem of fraud. As people live longer, fraud directed against the elderly has become an increasingly serious problem. In fact, it has been mushrooming in recent years. According to one report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

financial scams and other crimes singling out older Americans quadrupled from 2013 to 2017, and involved more than $6 billion in fraud

With the advent of the Internet and other technology, the elderly have become especially vulnerable.

What makes these crimes particularly heinous is not only the vulnerability of the victims, not only the breach of trust involved, but also the victims’ stage in life – the victims usually do not have the opportunity to recover from the financial loss.

Victims have entered what should be their golden years, having worked hard to save up for their retirement. And frequently, they lose their life savings to these cold-blooded fraudsters. These crimes devastate lives.

This is why the Trump administration has made attacking fraud against our senior citizens one of its top priorities. Shortly before I was appointed to serve as Attorney General, something happened that drove home to me the viciousness of this crime, and why we had to tackle it full on.

I myself was used as a lure in a scam. My official Justice Department portrait from 1992 was uploaded to various websites. My fake persona was informing people that, as the former Attorney General, I had special access to government grants, and that if people sent me some money, I would tell them how to get a lot of money in exchange.

I started getting phone calls from people asking why they had not received their money. My portrait kept appearing on these bogus websites, and I kept getting calls at my office. These were frantic calls. Some people were desperately hoping this was not a scam. Others who called were embarrassed, and wanted to let me know this was going on, and to know who they could contact for support. I remember a number of the calls. One woman from Georgia explained that she and her husband had lost their life savings: $40,000.

Under President Trump, the department is confronting this evil. In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act to improve the justice system’s response to victims in elder abuse and exploitation cases.

Then the following year, he signed an Executive Order that established a task force within the Department of Justice, which placed new emphasis on the growing problems of cyber fraud and fraud targeting the elderly. The department appointed a National Elder Justice Coordinator to oversee our work to combat elder fraud. Further, all 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, including the one here in Tampa, have a prosecutor who focuses on the most pressing elder justice issues facing each particular district.

We have been aggressively bringing enforcement actions in criminal and civil cases throughout the country. Last year, I announced the results of the largest Elder Fraud Sweep ever conducted. It involved more than 260 defendants who victimized more than two million Americans, and caused more than $750 million in loss.

When I announced those results last March, I vowed that we would step up our efforts. I am proud to announce that the department and its law enforcement partners fulfilled that promise. Today, I am pleased to report the results of our annual Elder Fraud Sweep.

This year’s Sweep involved over 400 defendants from around the globe – a 54-percent increase – and in excess of $1 billion in loss. I am proud of the fact that every one of our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country was involved in these cases. This demonstrates the breadth and depth of our commitment to attack elder fraud. I pledge we will continue to escalate the fight

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-announces-results-department-justices-2020-elder-fraud

Medical, Medicare fraud, the false claim act and Pharma, hospitals and insurance companies involved listed on DOJ just the last two weeks

there’s big money in Medicare, medical and Pharma fraud

https://www.justice.gov/news