Cognizant to pay $25M to settle bribery charges

Major American IT player Cognizant will pay USD 25 million to the US Security and Exchange Commission to settle its India bribery charges, as Department of Justice filed criminal cases against two of its former top executives.

The two former executives have been charged for their roles in facilitating the payment of millions of dollars in bribe to an Indian government official, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) said.

Cognizant has agreed to pay USD 25 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the SEC said.

The complaint alleges that in 2014, a senior Tamil Nadu official demanded a USD 2 million bribe from the construction firm responsible for building Cognizant’s 2.7 million square foot campus in Chennai.