Justice drops foreign bribery case against defense executives

The case was the first where the FBI used an undercover
sting operation to nab suspects under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which
says it’s illegal to bribe foreign officials.

{mosads}The defense industry executives had thought they were
bidding on contracts for Gabon’s military, and were asked by officials — who
said they were with Gabon’s defense ministry — to add a 20 percent “commission”
to their quotes as a bribe, according to Reuters.

The Gabon officials were in fact undercover FBI agents, and the FBI arrested
22 executives in 2010.

But after the Justice Department was unable to win
convictions in its first trials, it decided to abandon the case Tuesday. Three
executives had pleaded guilty before a trial, Reuters reported.

In its filing, the Justice Department said the outcomes of
the first two trials, rulings that did not allow certain evidence to be
admitted and the amount of government resources needed to continue the
prosecution, all led to the decision to drop the case.

“The government respectfully submits that continued
prosecution of this case is not warranted under the circumstances,” the
prosecutors wrote in the filing.