Cognizant faces new suit on ‘India bribery’

Bengaluru: A small US pension fund is suing Cognizant’s board and management for alleged misleading of shareholders and corporate profligacy in the wake of its India bribery settlement, adding to the swelling list of related cases against the US-listed IT services company.

The suit, filed last month, claims that Cognizant executives had misled shareholders about audits conducted into its anti-corruption practices. “In the 2014 and 2015 sustainability reports, the company represented that Cognizant conducted thorough audits regarding anti-corruption practices and did not find any instance of corruption in either 2014 or 2015,” said the suit, a copy of which has been seen by ET. “Cognizant’s anti-corruption controls were not nearly as robust as defendants falsely represented. Defendants lacked a reasonable factual basis for their positive statements in the 2014 and 2015 sustainability reports praising the company’s anti-corruption legal compliance.”