A leading industrial executive who was at the heart of conflict with unions over foreign workers was arrested in a dawn raid yesterday on suspicion of bribing officials to win contracts abroad.
Stephen Burgin and two fellow directors of the French transport and infrastructure group Alstom were questioned after being held in raids co-ordinated by the Serious Fraud Office.
Alstom confirmed that Mr Burgin, 52, preside nt of the groups UK division, Robert Purcell, 44, UK finance director, and Altan Cledwyn-Davies, 51, its UK legal director and company secretary, were questioned at police stations before being released without charge last night.
The SFO said that the raids on nine residential and company premises were in connection with an investigation into Alstoms UK subsidiaries. It is suspected that bribes have been paid in order to win contracts overseas, and that this has involved associated money laundering and other offences, the agency said.
Related LinksInsider deals raid: link to bank rescueANALYSIS: The French company with a British heritageDaimler agrees to $185m bribe charge settlementMultimediaGRAPHIC: Alstom worldwideThe three men could not be reached for comment, but Alstom said the company was co-operating with the SFOs inquiries.
Mr Burgin, who lives in Staffordshire, is one of Britains leading power industry executives. He has been overseeing the construction of four new gas-fired power stations at Pembroke in South Wales, Langage in Devon, the Isle of Grain in north Kent and at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire.
He has also been at the centre of a major row with unions for allegedly shipping in cheap foreign labour to build the power stations. There have been strikes, picketing, walkouts and marches at each of the four plants as the Unite union has targeted Alstom and Mr Burgin for allegedly refusing to recruit British workers.
Mr Burgin has said that he has created jobs for Britons and that two thirds of the hundreds of workers at the sites were British, although he also conceded: Alstom has no say over European Union employment law.
His standing in his native Stoke saw Mr Burgin appointed chairman of the governors of Staffordshire University, where he earned his degree in electrical engineering before joining GEC in 1975. Alstom was created by a merger between GEC and Alcatel. Mr Burgin has also been an executive for the British operations of the European engineering giants ABB and Areva.
The SFO declined to give details of the countries in which Alstoms British subsidiaries were under suspicion.
Alstom is the subject of a separate investigation in Switzerland into alleged corruption. The company has been accused of funnelling millions of dollars worth of bribes to government officials in Asia and South America to win contracts for rail and power projects between 1995 and 2003.
Stephane Farhi, a spokesman at Alstoms head office in Paris, said that its premises in Switzerland and France had been raided by authorities in 2008. Four individuals were questioned but none was facing charges, Mr Farhi said.
Yesterdays raid, codenamed Operation Ruthenium, involved 109 staff from the SFO and 44 police. They executed search warrants on company premises in five locations, including London and Rugby, and on homes in Leicestershire, London, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Richard Alderman, the SFOs director, said that the move was a sign of how seriously the agency regarded tackling corporate corruption. The agency has brought several high-profile prosecutions for overseas bribery in the past year.
Alstom is best-known for making high-speed trains but its power business is much larger. Building turbines for electricity generating stations and maintaining power plant around the world accounts for 70 per cent of its near-€19 billion of annual sales. The company is working on gas and hydro plants in Brazil and Asia, and on nuclear power stations in China.
Plea deal with BAE
A plea deal between the Serious Fraud Office and BAE Systems will go ahead after a legal challenge by anti-arms campaigners was rejected by the High Court. Corner House, a social justice group, and Campaign Against Arms Trade asked the court to block the settlement, under which BAE agreed to a single guilty plea to a minor accounting offence relating to the sale of an air traffic control system to Tanzania. BAE agreed to pay a 30 million fine, but campaigners have protested that the penalty does not reflect the seriousness of the allegations against the company. They asked for the decision to settle the case to be reviewed, but Mr Justice Collins denied the application.
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