US SEC ends Cognizant bribery case that the Justice Department also abandoned

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ended a civil bribery case against two former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives, after President Donald Trump decided to stop enforcing a key anti-corruption law.

In a filing in the Newark, New Jersey federal court, the SEC said it dismissed claims against Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz “in the exercise of its discretion and as a policy matter,” and not on the merits.

The dismissal followed the Department of Justice’s April 3 decision to abandon a related criminal case against Coburn and Schwartz.

James Loonam, a lawyer for Coburn, said he was very happy with the dismissal. A lawyer for Schwartz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. authorities charged Coburn and Schwartz in February 2019 with authorizing a $2 million bribe to an Indian official for helping to obtain a construction permit for a new Cognizant office in Chennai.

The SEC accused Coburn and Schwartz of violating anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of federal securities laws.

Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said in April the criminal case should end in light of Trump’s executive order pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The FCPA prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials.

Trump has called it a “horrible law,” and when signing his executive order said ending enforcement would “mean a lot more business for America.”

Cognizant agreed in February 2019 to pay $25.2 million to settle with the SEC. The regulator also accused the Teaneck, New Jersey-based information technology and outsourcing company of authorizing two additional bribes.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)