FORMER COMPANY OFFICIAL PLEADS GUILTY TO OFFERING BRIBES TO FOREIGN OFFICIALS

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, June 15, 2012
Former Vice President at California Valve Company Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Offense
WASHINGTON – David Edmonds, the former vice president of worldwide customer service at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI), pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), announced the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Edmonds, who resides in San Clemente, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., to a one-count superseding information charging him with making a corrupt payment to a foreign government official in Greece in violation of the FCPA.  According to court documents, CCI designed and manufactured service control valves for use in the nuclear, oil and gas, and power generation industries worldwide.

At sentencing, Edmonds, 59, faces up to 15 months in prison.  Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2012.

Edmonds is the seventh former CCI executive to plead guilty to FCPA charges in connection with the company’s bribery scheme:

On May 29, 2012, Paul Cosgrove, CCI’s former head of worldwide sales, pleaded guilty to one count of making a corrupt payment to a foreign government official.
On April 17, 2012, Stuart Carson, CCI’s former president, and Hong “Rose” Carson, CCI’s former director of sales for China and Taiwan, each pleaded guilty to one count of making a corrupt payment to a foreign government official.

On April 28, 2011, Flavio Ricotti, CCI’s former vice president of sales for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the FCPA.
On Feb. 3, 2009, Richard Morlok, the former CCI finance director, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

On Jan. 8, 2009, Mario Covino, the former director of worldwide factory sales for CCI, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

Stuart and Rose Carson, Cosgrove, Covino, Morlok and Ricotti are scheduled to be sentenced later this year.  FCPA charges brought in April 2009 against Han Yong Kim, the former president of CCI’s Korean office, are pending.  An indictment merely contains allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

On July 31, 2009, 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.  CCI was ordered to pay an $18.2 million criminal fine, placed on organizational probation for three years, and ordered to create and implement a compliance program and retain an independent compliance monitor for three years.  CCI admitted that from 2003 through 2007, it made corrupt payments in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million from sales related to those corrupt payments.

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Charles G. La Bella and Trial Attorney Andrew Gentin of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas McCormick and Gregory Staples of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.  The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and its team of special agents dedicated to the investigation of foreign bribery cases.