Alcatel's graft fine 'one of US biggest'

THE US government has described the financial penalty it imposed on Alcatel-Lucent as one of the largest fines of its type in US history.

Mike Quigley

THE US government has described the financial penalty it imposed on Alcatel-Lucent -- the company where National Broadband Network chief Michael Quigley was previously a senior executive -- as one of the largest fines of its type in US history.

It can be revealed the US Department of Justice claims Alcatel stalled for many years in providing it with information relating to a five-year corruption investigation into the company.

In defence of his failure to tell the Australian government about the corruption at Alcatel before becoming NBN chief, Mr Quigley has played down the severity of the corruption at Alcatel and claimed the group "co-operated fully" with US authorities.

Some other claims made by Mr Quigley about his past as one of the top executives of the French telco -- such as that he was not responsible for Alcatel's operations in Latin America, where Alcatel employees in four countries spent millions of dollars bribing officials -- have been questioned by The Australian.

In a US court case last week on Alcatel corruption, the US Department of Justice said the $US137 million the French telco giant was fined for bribing government officials in numerous countries was one of the "largest fines ever issued under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act".

"It's the second time in history a French company has actually been prosecuted for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations," the department told a Florida court on May 11.

Mr Quigley has played down the severity of the corruption at Alcatel, some of which has now been revealed as occurring under his watch. At Monday's joint parliamentary committee hearing into the $36 billion broadband network, he said that between 2008 and 2010, 44 major companies "have had to pay fines for this kind of activity".

Separately, The Australian can reveal that in documents filed in the District Court of Florida in 2008, the US Department of Justice said Alcatel had stalled for many years in providing the government with information on its investigation into the company.

The department said the co-operation of one of Alcatel's Costa Rican employees had forced the company to "take a more serious role investigating itself and its conduct".

Mr Quigley has previously claimed Alcatel had "co-operated fully" with US investigators.

Mr Quigley was president of Alcatel Americas from March 2001 to January 2003, and then became president and chief operating officer of the group in 2005 and 2006.

The mounting concerns over the past of Mr Quigley -- and the past of NBN chief financial officer Jean-Pascal Beaufret, who was Alcatel chief financial officer from 2002 to 2007 -- come as the NBN Co and the federal government have declined to answer key questions about Mr Quigley's past. For the third day in a row, Mr Quigley and the NBN Co refused to comment on the revelations that as Alcatel Americas president, Mr Quigley was responsible for not only Costa Rica -- where the company was involved in corruption -- but also Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador. Alcatel was involved in corruption in all those countries, some of which occurred on Mr Quigley's watch.

Mr Quigley and Mr Beaufret have said they were not involved in, nor had any knowledge of, the corruption at Alcatel.

There is no suggestion Mr Quigley or Mr Beaufret were involved in the corruption.