US justice department to cooperate in Louis Berger bribery case: CID

The CID in Assam probing the Louis Berger bribery case on Saturday informed the Gauhati High Court that the US Department of Justice has agreed to cooperate with investigations in Assam and engage in video conferencing.

In an affidavit, CID Special Superintendent of Police said it was in touch with CBI’s International Police Cooperation Cell to facilitate a video conference with the US Department of Justice.

The investigating agency informed the court that the US department had earlier agreed to share information in connection with the case with the CID.

A bench of justices Hrishikesh Roy and Nelson Sailo directed the CID to submit the status and feasibility of the video conference in four weeks’ time.

Enforcement Directorate on August 6, 2015, registered a money laundering FIR in Louis Berger bribery case to probe charges of bribing Indian officials with crores of rupees to win a major water developmental project in Guwahati.

The then Tarun Gogoi government ordered a CID probe into the case also in the same month.

Two of the New Jersey-based company’s former executives - Richard Hirsch of the Philippines, and James McClung of the UAE - had in July 2015 pleaded guilty before a New Jersey court of paying bribes in Assam and Goa to obtain contracts as consultants of water supply projects.

In India since 1998, Louis Berger has offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.