Prosecutors in Japan have reached a plea agreement with a major supplier of energy equipment accused of bribing a public servant in Thailand.
According to the agreement with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd, prosecutors will refuse the indictment of the company in exchange for information about the employee involved in the bribe, sources said. It is written by Bangkokpost.
While full details of the case were not immediately known, the staff member was said to have given tens of millions of yen in bribes to a local official in connection with transportation work under a power plant contract concluded in 2013, sources said.
The company declined to comment on the matter, saying it “cooperates properly with the authorities when it finds a potential breach of legal compliance.”
If a company is found guilty of violating antitrust laws, the Corporation may be fined up to 300 million yen. A person who violates the law may be sentenced to five years ‘ imprisonment and/or fined up to 5 million yen.
In June, Japan introduced a system of plea negotiations for organized crime and bribery.
In Japan, there were only four cases where companies or individuals had been prosecuted for bribery involving foreign public officials since 1998, when the country had banned bribes from and received them from such officials.
The Thai government in February of this year awarded a contract with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems for 30 billion baht for the supply of equipment for the planned power plant with a capacity of 5 300 megawatts, which will be built near Bangkok.
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems headquartered in Yokohama (Japan) is a joint venture established in February 2014 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd., which combined their capacity for the production of heat energy and related activities. Today, MHPS is considered to be one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services for the electricity market with a capital of 100 billion yen and about 20 thousand employees worldwide.
