Ramendra Basu was an Indian national employed at the World Bank's Consultant Trust Funds Office as a Trust Funds Manager. The World Bank was a public international organization which funds development projects throughout the world. Basu's duties included recommending consultants to World Bank Task Managers to work on projects they managed, and also approving Task Managers' requests for allocation of Consultant Trust Funds to pay the consultants.
In January, 1999, Basu participated in a corrupt payment to a Kenyan official related to the urban transport project in Kenya. A business associate of Basu's ("American Consultant") was hired by Kenyan officials after an introduction arranged by the Task Manager. The American Consultant was to perform work on the urban transport project in a joint venture with a Kenyan company known as Geomaps. With the knowledge of the defendant, the American Consultant agreed to forward a portion of the monies it received on the contract to the Swedish Consultant to pay kickbacks to the Task Manager and Kenyan government officials supervising the project. In January 1999, the defendant sent, via e-mail, the bank account number of Geomaps to the Swedish Consultant, with knowledge that money forwarded from the American Consultant to the Swedish Consultant would be paid to a Kenyan government official as a bribe. Shortly thereafter, $50,000 was wire-transferred from the account controlled by the Swedish Consultant to the Geomaps account in Kenya for the benefit of the Kenyan government official.
On November 26, 2002, the DOJ filed a two count Information in the District of Columbia against Basu alleging (a) conspiracy to commit wire fraud and (2) violations of the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On December 17, 2002, Basu entered into a Plea Agreement with the DOJ. Under the terms of the agreement, Basu pleaded guilty to both counts and agreed to be sentenced under the sentencing guidelines and pay restitution of $127,000. On May 30, 2008, the court sentenced Basu to 15 months in prison to be followed by 2 years of supervised release, which included 50 hours of community service. The court also ordered Basu to pay a a mandatory assessment of $200, but no mention is made in the final judgment of the restitution noted in the Plea Agreement or of any monetary penalty.
Just prior to the final judgment by the court, Basu filed a notice to appeal. The appeal was based on Basu's motion to withdraw his guilty plea on May 7, 2006, which the court denied on Jan 23, 2008. Basu sought to withdraw his guilty plea because he claimed that his counsel had been ineffective during the plea negotiations. On February 2, 2010, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the District Court. On March 23, 2011, Basu moved the District Court to vacate his sentence, which the District Court denied on June 18, 2012. Basu then sought to appeal that denial, but on October 22, 2012, the District Court denied Basu's motion for a certificate of appealability.
