Trial of former Cognizant executives in Chennai campus bribery case pushed to 2024

The trial was originally set to begin on October 3.

The long-delayed trial of two former executives of Cognizant in a bribery case pertaining to the construction of a campus in Chennai has been pushed yet again, at least till the second half of February 2024. The judge in the United States District Court for New Jersey, who has been hearing the matter since its start is retiring at the end of the month, pushing the hearing date out depending on the next judge assigned to the case.

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 matter pertains to the construction of the KITS campus. Cognizant is not a party to the case after it paid $25 million to settle charges that it violated the FCPA.

The trial was originally slated to begin on October 3, but was deferred after a key witness — Srimanikandan Ramamoorthy, a former Cognizant employee — who agreed to testify for the US government in the matter, could not travel to the US as his passport was with the Enforcement Directorate in India.

As per the transcript of the hearing on October 6, the lawyer for the US Department of Justice told the court that Ramamoorthy got his passport back.

“Yesterday, the Enforcement Directorate notified us that they were comfortable with Mr. Ramamoorthy traveling to the United States for trial and staying through the duration of trial; and then later in the day we learned from Mr. Ramamoorthy's counsel that he did, in fact, have his passport back,” the lawyer said.

While the lawyer said that he could be in the US this week, it was too late.

“Unfortunately, we have a bigger problem in terms of that just picking up trial in the middle of next week or shortly thereafter. We can’t turn this ocean liner that fast…..Among other things, we’ve lost our jury panel,” the judge said.

As per the transcript, Ramamoorthy has a non-prosecution agreement with the government. James Loonam, who represents Coburn, was quoted as saying that the government has promised Indian authorities that Ramamoorthy will immediately return to India after the trial ends.

“It seems to be that that was a big concern to the Indian authorities to allow Mr. Ramamoorthy to travel, is that he wouldn't be in the United States for an undetermined period of time and he would return to India immediately after the trial,” he said.

“[Ramamoorthy] entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. government, and the U.S. government is certain to argue at trial that the agreement incentivizes Mr. Ramamoorthy to testify truthfully because, if he lies or breaches his agreement in any way, it could be torn up and he could be prosecuted for perjury or prosecuted for the underlying offenses that he's admitted to, which carry substantial maximum terms for imprisonment up to 20 years,” he added.

For now, the judge tentatively set the date as February 2024, but acknowledged that the new date would not be in his control and would depend on the next judge.