A former executive for a military equipment company pleaded guilty to conspiracy today in Washington federal court, three years after he began cooperating with prosecutors in what has become the largest prosecution of alleged foreign corruption payments.
Richard Bistrong, formerly of Armor Holdings Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other statutes. He faces up to five years in prison, and as part of his plea, he agreed not to request a downward departure from the federal sentencing guidelines, said Laura Perkins, a trial attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s fraud section. A sentencing date has not been set.
Bistrong’s cooperation with the federal government, including as a paid FBI informant, has helped prosecutors to build a 22-defendant prosecution related to equipment sales.
As The National Law Journal reported in June, the case is currently embroiled in a fight over 14 million pages of documents that Armor turned over to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission beginning in 2007. Lawyers for the 22 defendants want copies, while lawyers for Armor say that many of the documents are privileged.
Bistrong’s plea came before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who accepted the plea. Brady Toensing of Washington’s diGenova & Toensing represented Bistrong.
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