Indian-origin man charged with bribing Mexican officials

New York: A 69-year-old Indian-origin man is among six people charged in the United States with bribing Mexican officials with over $2 million in order to secure aircraft maintenance and repair contracts with government-owned and controlled entities.

Kamta Ramnarine pleaded guilty in November before US District Judge Ricardo H Hinojosa of the Southern District of Texas to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mr Ramnarine is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Charges were unsealed against Mr Ramnarine and five other individuals, all of whom had pleaded guilty for their involvement in schemes to bribe Mexican officials in order to secure aircraft maintenance and repair contracts with government-owned and controlled entities, and two for conspiring to launder the proceeds of the schemes.

In total, Ramnarine and their co-conspirators paid more than $ 2 million in bribes to Mexican officials in order to secure aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul contracts.

According to the plea agreements, between 2006 and 2016, the defendants and their co-conspirators, who owned or were associated with companies in the United States that provided aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul and related services to customers from the United States and Mexico, paid the bribes in order to secure parts and servicing contracts with Mexican government-owned customers.

Kamta Ramnarine admitted that he conspired to pay bribes to several foreign officials between 2007 and 2015 to ensure that their Brownsville-based company won aircraft parts and services contracts with Mexican government-owned customers.