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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

How General Electric committed corrupt practices & violated conflict of interest terms in its 2010 bid for the Marhowra diesel locomotive Indian Rail tender





General Electric Company committed a defined corrupt practice while bidding for the 2010 tender for the Indian Railways Project for a proposed diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra, Bihar.

In 2009-2010, GE executives engaged the services of a man called Vinod Sharma, who had earlier advised the Indian Railway Ministry on the very same Project and on an earlier tender for the same Project in 2008-2009 in which GE participated but which was cancelled when GE made a mistake in the financial bid submitted by it.


Vinod Sharma, a retired Railway Ministry official, was employed/ consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008-2009. PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged by the Indian Rail Ministry for advice and consultancy on this Project including on the 2008-2009 tender for this Project. Vinod Sharma was part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers team advising the India Rail Ministry for this Project.


GE executives (Pratyush Kumar then with GE Transportation and Ashfaq Nainar with GE Transportation) were aware that Vinod Sharma  had advised the Indian Rail Ministry on this Project and was part of the team that had prepared the Project documents, the bid contracts for the 2008-2009 tender for the Project, and had evaluated GE's 2008-2009 bid for this Project for the Indian Government. Yet, GE executives knowingly engaged the services of Vinod Sharma for advice on GE's bid for the same Project in 2010.


This created a serious conflict of interest situation which was defined in the 2010 bid documents as a "corrupt practice" and which rendered General Electric liable for disqualification from the 2010 tender and also liable for mandatory blacklisting from all Indian Rail contracts for a period of two years.


Attorney Seema Sapra, who was employed as in-house legal counsel for GE Transportation and was based in India and was advising on GE's 2010 bid, blew the whistle on this corrupt practice by GE executives. General Electric executives and lawyers have not only failed to investigate this corrupt practice but have put into effect an obstruction of justice conspiracy to cover this up.


The attorney Seema Sapra faced with a life threat from General Electric executives and lawyers filed a legal proceeding in the Delhi High Court being Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012. The Delhi High Court issued notice in this matter to General Electric Company, GE India Industrial Private Limited and GE Global Sourcing India Private Limited on 7 March 2012. A copy of the Delhi High Court order dated 7 March 2012 can be viewed on the Delhi High Court website at http://delhihighcourt.nic.in/dhcqrydisp_o.asp?pn=49717&yr=2012


Instead of appearing before the Delhi High Court in this matter through properly authorized and competent person/s, General Electric Company lawyers and executives (including General Counsel Brackett Denniston, and GE in-house lawyers Alexander Dimitref, Bradford Berenson, and Jeffrey Eglash), caused this legal proceeding to remain hidden from General Electric Company and caused an Indian subsidiary employee K R Radhakrishnan to impersonate as the authorized signatory/ representative of General Electric Company before the Delhi High Court in these legal proceedings between 2012 and 2015 using fraudulent and forged authority documents on behalf of General Electric Company. With the help of this fraud, and using other dishonest, corrupt and illegal means, General Electric Company is attempting to cover up the corruption and FCPA complaints against it in connection with its bids for two Indian Railway tenders - the tenders for the proposed diesel locomotive factory in Marhowra and the tenders for the proposed electric locomotive factory in Madhepura. For more details on this fraud, obstruction of justice and attempted cover-up see http://geimpersonationfraud.blogspot.in/


In this proceeding, an affidavit was filed by K R Radhakrishnan purporting to be an affidavit on behalf of General Electric Company wherein it was admitted that that “GE India did in fact enter into a written relationship with Mr Sharma’s company, Essvee Consultants, effective August 11, 2009”. General Electric in the same affidavit has also admitted that Vinod Sharma did work for PricewaterhouseCoopers and therefore for the Indian Rail Ministry for the 2008 Marhowra tender.


There is no record of a company registered in India with the name Essvee Consultants. So how did GE India enter into a written relationship with a Company called Essvee Consultants in 2009? This again raises a red flag about the dubious nature of the relationship between General Electric on the one hand and Vinod Sharma on the other. This also raises an FCPA red flag in that the contract between GE and Vinod Sharma was most likely used by GE to facilitate the transfer of bribes to Indian public officials.

The Court record for Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012 can be found at http://seemasapra.blogspot.in/p/updated-court-documents-in-whistle.html


Though Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012 has been disposed off (as GE executives and lawyers subverted these legal proceedings in an obstruction of justice conspiracy), the complaints against General Electric including the complaint regarding Vinod Sharma have not been investigated or decided.


For more on General Electric corruption in India in connection with the Indian Rail tenders for the proposed diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra and the proposed electric locomotive factory at Madhepura, see


http://geimpersonationfraud.blogspot.in/  General Electric substituted fake representative/ signatory in Indian corruption legal case

http://gecorruption.blogspot.in/  FCPA alert- General Electric paid bribes to Indian public officials using third party contractor - Aartech Consultants India Private Limited

http://gemarhowracorruption.blogspot.in/  The PwC & Vinod Sharma conflict of interest & GE corruption in Marhowra Project

http://gemarhowracorruptionpart2.blogspot.in/ Shakeel Ahmed, Indian Rail official corruptly vetted GE 2008 bid documents for Marhowra Project

http://gecorruptionpart2.blogspot.in/ General Electric corruptly obtained Indian Rail Marhowra Project bid docs before they were public

http://gecorruptionpart3.blogspot.in/ Wikileaks US Embassy cables on creation of Marhowra loco factory Project for General Electric

http://gecorruptionpart4.blogspot.in/ General Electric corruption & fraud to avoid mandatory disclosures in India tender

http://gecorruptionpart5.blogspot.in/ #FCPA Why is General Electric bidding for India electric loco tender which it does not manufacture

http://seemasapra.blogspot.com/   Seema Sapra - General Electric corruption whistle-blower: the Truth prevails