Lufthansa subsidiary officials charged for bribery

Lufthansa subsidiary officials charged for briberyTwo former officials from a subsidiary of Lufthansa have been charged in the US state of Oklahoma for being involved in bribing foreign officials for obtaining aircraft maintenance contracts.

Two others also pleaded guilty for related criminal charges, according to the .S. Department of Justice. The two officials of Lufthansa Technik's BizJet International Sales and Support were charged with bribing government officials in Latin America for obtaining contracts for the company.

It was found that Bernd Kowalewski, the former president and chief executive officer of BizJet, and Jald Jensen, a former sales manager paid bribes to government officials in various countries including Mexico, Brazil and Panama for their assistance in obtaining contracts, according to the charges filed in the federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma in January 2012. The Justice Department believes that Kowalewski and Jensen are currently believed to outside the United Sates.

Meanwhile, Peter DuBois, the former vice president of sales and marketing at BizJet, and Neal Uhl, the former vice president of finance at the company also pleaded guilty to iracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Their appeals were unsealed yesterday, according to the court documents.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said in the statement that, the four former executives "authorized and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars to be paid directly and indirectly to ranking military officials in various foreign countries."