First Charges Brought in Relation to Uranium One Scandal

by Kenneth Whittle, Disobedient Media:

On Friday, Mark Lambert, former co-president of Maryland-based shipping company Transport Logistics International (TLI), was charged in an 11-count indictment. The charges include of one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering.

As stated by Reuters, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime for businesses to bribe overseas officials to win business.

According to the Department of Justice, “The charges stem from an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX.”

According to the indictment, from 2009 until October of 2014, Lambert and others at “Transportation Corporation A” (Transport Logistics International), conspired to “…make corrupt and fraudulent bribery and kickback payments to offshore bank accounts associated with shell companies, at the direction of, and for the benefit of, a Russian official, Vadim Mikerin, in order to secure improper business advantages and obtain and retain business with TENEX.”

Vadim Mikerin, the former director at the Russian state-owned Rosatom, was sentenced in 2015 to four years for money laundering in connection to these bribes, while Daren Condrey, Lambert’s former co-president at Transport Logistics International, plead guilty to bribery and wire fraud. Condrey is currently awaiting sentencing.

The Hill reported on the Uranium One scandal in October, writing that documents: “indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.”

In December, Press reports indicate that Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the Justice Department to begin probing FBI agents for information about the long dormant Uranium One deal.

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