Control Components, Incorporated ("CCI") was a Delaware corporation headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, that designed and manufactured control valves for use in the nuclear, oil and gas, and power generation industries worldwide.
Mario Covino was CCI's Director of Worldwide Factory Sales from around March 2003 through around 2007. In this capacity, Covino was responsible for overseeing CCI's new construction projects and the replacement of existing valves made by other companies and installed at CCI's customer's plants.
From about March 2003 to August 2007, Covino caused CCI's employees and agents to make corrupt payments totaling approximately $1 million to foreign officials employed at state-owned entities in order to obtain and retain business for CCI, and CCI earned approximately $5 million in profits from the contracts that it obtained as a result of these corrupt payments. The corrupt payments were made to foreign officials at state-owned entities including, but not limited to, Petrobras (Brazil), Dingzhou Power (China), Datang Power (China), China Petroleum, China Resources Power, China National Offshore Oil Company, PetroChina, Maharashtra State Electricity Board (India), KHNP (Korea), Petronas (Malaysia), Dolphin Energy (UAE), and Abu Dhabi Company for Oil Operations (UAE).
On December 17, 2008, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Central District of California against Covino alleging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On the same date, Covino entered into a Plea Agreement with the DOJ. Under the terms of the agreement, Covino pleaded guilty to the count of conspiracy, and on March 12, 2013, the court sentenced Covino to 3 years probation, the first 3 months of which to be served under house arrest, and to a fine of $7500 plus a mandatory assessment of $100.
