Cognizant Chennai campus bribery case: Former execs’ trial delayed over key Indian witness’ passport being with ED

The trial was originally set to begin on October 3.

The trial of two former executives of Cognizant in a bribery case has been pushed as a key witness cannot travel from India to the US, a US court said. The trial, in United States v. Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz, was scheduled to begin on October 3.

Former Cognizant President Gordon Coburn (who was also previously CFO) and former Chief Legal Officer Steven Schwartz have been charged with violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) over an alleged bribe of $2.5 million paid to officials in Chennai.

The alleged bribe pertains to the construction of Cognizant's KITS campus. L&T, one of India's largest conglomerates, was tasked with its construction.

A letter written by the US Department of Justice to the court asking to delay the trial said that an essential witness, Srimanikandan Ramamoorthy, cannot travel to the US as the Enforcement Directorate in India have his passport. Ramamoorthy, a former Cognizant executive who was in charge of handling the company's real estate programs in India, agreed to testify for the US government in the case.

"The Government understands that, since at least May 2023, Mr. Ramamoorthy has been under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, an investigative arm of the Indian Government, for his role in the bribery scheme charged in the Indictment. On September 23, 2023, the Government learned from Mr. Ramamoorthy, through his United States counsel, that on September 22, Mr. Ramamoorthy surrendered his passport to Officers of the Enforcement Directorate based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India," the letter states.

This, it states came as a "complete surprise" to them as he was to be in the US on September 24.

'Non compliance'

As per the letter, the ED asked Ramamoorthy for many documents, which he allegedly doesn’t have. He had another meeting on September 25, the letter says the ED believes that he is non-compliance with their requests.

As per the letter, ED officials have told Ramamoorthy they want him to be able to cooperate with both India and US, but the US officials can't predict when Ramamoorthy will get his passport back and be able to travel. It adds that the US department has tried to talk to the ED officers in question who have been meeting with the witness through an FBI legal attache. So far, the letter states that the ED hasn’t spoken to the US government.

In a transcript of the hearing from September 27 at the US district court for New Jersey, the US DOJ’s lawyer said, "Indian authorities indicated to us that prior to Mr. Ramamoorthy voluntarily surrendering his passport they did not have an objection to Mr. Ramamoorthy traveling to the United States for trial before he completed his cooperation with their investigation but that now that he has surrendered his passport they need to obtain information from him and then, you know, sort of seek approval from up their chain to return the passport."

However, the transcript makes it unclear when Ramamoorthy had and didn’t have his passport. Going by documents, it is also unclear if his passport was turned over voluntarily to the ED or not.

The US is speaking with Indian authorities to get Ramamoorthy’s passport returned, an attorney for the US government told the court.

The court decided to grant the delay in the trial as he granted multiple delays from the defence, the judge said that a trial without Ramamoorthy would be "less accurate."

"This has real potential for impairing the search for truth here. And whether you believe Mr. Ramamoorthy is a reliable witness or whether you believe he is an unreliable witness, either way, I think that his absence will impair this trial," the judge said.

The court said they will reconvene to figure out when the trial can proceed.

Apart from this, the Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in Tamil Nadu also filed an FIR in March in the matter, alleging that Cognizant obtained a planning permit through L&T and in the process, officials of the CMDA, as well as the Housing and Urban Development Department, got kickbacks.