Explained: Cognizant bribed govt officials in India, to pay $25-mn penalty

Two former high-ranking executives of technology major Cognizant have been charged by US prosecutors with allegedly paying Tamil Nadu government officials $2 million in bribes to get building permits for the company’s Chennai campus.

US-based Cognizant has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges towards violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said.

The criminal charges filed on Friday against Cognizant’s former President Gordon Coburn, 55, and former Chief Legal Officer Steven Schwartz, 51, in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, relates to the construction of the 250,000-sq-metre KITS campus in Chennai’s Sholinganallurits for the company’s Indian subsidiary.