One Year Ago … A Look Back At The DOJ’s Flawed Prosecution Of Former Cognizant Executives Coburn And Schwartz
A year ago this week, the DOJ moved to dismiss its long-standing criminal indictment charging former Cognizant executives Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz with FCPA and related offenses. Shortly thereafter, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz (D.N.J.) granted the motion.
Many assumed that the dismissal was solely based on the Executive Order issued by President Trump approximately 45 days prior to the dismissal which, among other things, directed the Attorney General to “review in detail all existing FCPA investigations or enforcement actions and take appropriate action with respect to such matters to restore proper bounds on FCPA enforcement …”.
Indeed, the DOJ’s short letter motion to dismiss the action stated the motion was “based on the recent assessment of the Executive Order’s application to this matter.”
However, linking the dismissal solely to the Executive Order was not warranted – as these pages mentioned at the time. In fact, in the weeks and months after the Coburn/Schwartz matter was dismissed, several other FCPA defendants tried unsuccessfully to dismiss actions based on the Executive Order.
A year later, it seems as if mention of the Executive Order in the DOJ’s motion to dismiss was just a convenient off-ramp for a case that should never have been brought in the first place.
SEC Also Dismisses Enforcement Action Against Coburn And Schwartz
Since 2019, this site has followed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action (DOJ and SEC) against former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz in connection with an alleged bribery scheme in India.
This February 25th post set forth the many reasons (legal and factual) why the enforcement action was unusual.
In April, the DOJ finally did the right thing and dismissed the indictment ending the DOJ enforcement action. (See here for the prior post).
Yesterday, the SEC also finally did the right thing.
This SEC release states:
“The Securities and Exchange Commission … filed a joint stipulation with Defendants Gordon J. Coburn and Steven E. Schwartz to dismiss, with prejudice, the Commission’s ongoing civil enforcement action against them.
The Commission’s decision to exercise its discretion and dismiss the pending enforcement action rests on its judgment that the dismissal is appropriate as a policy matter, not on any assessment of the merits of the claims alleged in the action. Furthermore, as stated in the joint stipulation, the Commission’s decision to seek dismissal of this action “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”
Judge Dismisses Indictment Against Former Cognizant Executives
Since 2019, this site has followed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz in connection with an alleged bribery scheme in India.
This February 25th post set forth the many reasons (legal and factual) why the enforcement action was unusual and further questioned why the enforcement action was going forward despite President Trump’s Executive Order on February 10th titled “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security.”
In recent weeks, the case has taken some interesting turns (see here), yet trial was scheduled to begin on April 7th. (See here).
As indicated in the below filing, the DOJ has finally done the right thing – it has moved to dismiss the indictment.
Judge Denies DOJ 180-Day Adjournment Request – Orders Trial To Occur Soon in Coburn/Schwartz Matter
As highlighted in this recent post, on March 4th the new U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey (John Giordano) requested a 180-day adjournment of the trial in U.S. v. Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz (former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives criminally charged in 2019 connection with an alleged Indian bribery scheme).
The request was submitted to the court “to allow sufficient time for … consideration of the application of the President’s February 10, 2025 Executive Order.” (See here for the prior post).
Below is the follow-up letter from Giordano to Judge Farbiarz.
U.S. Attorney In New Jersey Requests 180 Adjournment In Former Cognizant Execs Trial
