EDS settles SEC probe tied to Indian bribes

Electronic Data Systems Corp., the second-largest computer-services company, will pay $490,900 to settle a U.S. regulatory probe of its financial disclosures and recordkeeping lapses tied to bribes of Indian officials.

The company didn't promptly disclose costs for derivatives contracts and a transaction with a "major" client in 2002, then released part of the information selectively to analysts, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Tuesday.

Electronic Data also booked bogus invoices while an employee at a former management-consulting subsidiary paid at least $720,000 in bribes to officials at two energy companies partly owned by the Indian government, the Washington-based SEC said.

The company wasn't accused of knowingly making bribes.

Chandramowli Srinivasan, former president of A.T. Kearney India, arranged the illegal payments from 2001 to 2003 to retain contracts, the SEC said in a civil lawsuit filed against him Tuesday. Srinivasan agreed to pay a $72,000 fine to settle the case, the agency said.

He and the company didn't admit or deny wrongdoing under the accords.

Electronic Data "discovered, investigated and self- reported" the bribes, and later cooperated with the government's probe, company spokesman Bob Brand said. "We are pleased that the investigation is resolved and that we can put these historical matters behind us."

A.T. Kearney was spun off from Electronic Data in 2005.

source :dallasnews.com