An interesting DOJ criminal action alleging foreign bribery to highlight.
As highlighted in this recent press release an indictment was unsealed charging a Turkish national (Bahadir Hatipoglu) and a German national (Ralf Grywnow) for an alleged bribery scheme involving contracts with the U.S. military and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
As alleged in the indictment, Hatipoglu was the owner and General Manager of a Turkish construction company and Grywnow worked for the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA – an organization within NATO that served as a logistics and procurement agency supporting NATO’s mission).
According to the indictment, Hatipoglu and Grywnow engaged in a fraud scheme in which Hatipoglu bribed Grywnow “with money and other forms remuneration” and “in exchange [Grywnow] gave the construction company favorable treatment on NATO construction contracts and signed fraudulent evaluations of the company’s prior performance that favorably recommended the company for future projects with the United States military.” The indictment alleges that Hatipoglu “then used these evaluations to defraud and attempt to defraud the U.S. military.
According to the indictment “the scheme began no later than in or around June 2014, at some location outside of the jurisdiction of any particular state or district of the U.S.” and included
- “an envelope containing cash from Hatipoglu’s agent, which the agent delivered to Grywnow while Grywnow” was in Dubai
- “Hatipoglu arranged to pay for Grywnow to have a romantic encounter with a woman at a Dubai Hotel”
- “Hatipoglu arranged to pay for – portions of the construction of a home in Poland that was used by Grywnow and another one of Grywnow’s romantic partners” as well as furniture and a kitchen remodeling.
The indictment charges the individuals with conspiracy to commit money wire fraud and wire fraud.
The only U.S. nexus allegations are as follows:
- “later in the scheme, Hatipoglu and Grywnow began communicating about the scheme using WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Meta, which was a company headquartered in Menlo Park, California.”
- an e-mail from Grywnow to a representative of the Defense Logistics Agency (a component of the U.S. military) located in the U.S. which was transmitted to servers located in the U.S.
- an upload by a representative of the Turkish company to a file transfer platform operated by the U.S. Department of Defense
- an email from a representative of the Turkish company which was sent to a representative of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) transmitted to servers located in the U.S.
- an email from the Turkish company to USACE transmitted to servers located in the U.S.
In the release, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division stated:
“These defendants allegedly engaged in a years-long bribery scheme that tainted construction contracts with the U.S. military and our allies. Integrity in federal contracting is vital to ensuring a fair competitive process and protecting the public fisc. These charges demonstrate the department’s mission to eliminate corruption that skews procurement contracts away from the best bidder and toward those who can bribe insiders for preferential treatment.”
Special Agent in Charge Stanley Newell of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DOD-OIG-DCIS) Transnational Operations Field Office stated:
“With a global reach and formidable enforcement tools, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and its partner agencies are committed to pursuing those who exploit the American taxpayer. As the criminal investigative arm of the DoD Office of Inspector General, DCIS is dedicated to protecting the integrity of the U.S. military procurement system. Our investigators and analysts work diligently to bring to justice anyone attempting to corrupt this vital process.”
Special Agent in Charge Steven Ausfeldt of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Europe Field Office stated:
“This indictment is a significant step forward in our relentless pursuit of integrity within the procurement processes that support our military and NATO operations. Our collaboration with DOD-OIG-DCIS, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the FBI, and our international partners underscores our shared commitment to combat corruption in all its forms.”
Acting Assistant Director Mark Remily of the FBI’s Criminal Division stated:
“These charges demonstrate that the FBI is committed to investigating activity that manipulates U.S. contracts and ultimately imposes additional, unnecessary costs on American taxpayers. The FBI will work tirelessly to hold the individuals who engage in this type of corruption accountable, no matter where they are.”
