Introduced by Niobrara Sen. Barry DeKay on behalf of the governor, the law (LB1261) prohibits consumer-owned public power utilities from interfering with private power plants built to serve a single industrial customer with an electricity demand over 1,000 megawatts.
Nebraska
Mexican border bribery scheme will cost Omaha ag company $10 million, DOJ says
An Omaha-based agricultural supply chain company will pay more than $10 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation into a yearslong scheme to bribe Mexican officials to accept shipments at the border, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
A look at The Scoular Co. corporate offices in Omaha on Saturday.
The Scoular Co. was charged on July 2 in the Western District of Texas with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to court records and a press release from the Department of Justice. The DOJ said Scoular on Friday entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement in which it agreed to pay a nearly $9.77 million criminal penalty and a forfeiture of more than $414,000.
Between 2013 and 2019, Scoular used several customs brokers to pay more than $400,000 in bribes to Mexican officials to ensure its shipments of corn and other products successfully crossed into Mexico, the DOJ said. Under Mexican law, Scoular's shipments were subject to inspection for dirt, soil and other impurities, and "at the direction of Scoular employees and for Scoular's benefit," the brokers paid bribes of about $2,000 per Scoular train in cases of failed inspections, the DOJ press release said. The brokers then invoiced the bribes back to Scoular for reimbursement of reinspection fees, and Scoular paid them, the DOJ said.
“A portion of those bribes ultimately benefited people who helped operate a cartel, even though Scoular did not know about it," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the DOJ's Criminal Division. "This resolution shows that bribery and corruption not only undermine fair play and competition for Americans, but also hurt our national security interests in stopping the scourge of dangerous cartel activity.”
The DOJ said Scoular employees communicated about shipments and bribes via WhatsApp and other means and avoided more than $6.5 million in costs and fees.
A customs broker who paid bribes for Scoular, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in October. He is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.
The Justice Department said it reached the resolution with Scoular based on the nature and seriousness of the offense and the determination that a portion of the bribes benefitted people associated with criminal cartel operations at the southern U.S. border.
Scoular Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary Tim Manning said the company cooperated fully and moved quickly to fix the problems, ending the customs broker relationships involved, reorganizing business teams, commissioning an outside review of its compliance program, tightening internal controls and expanding anti-corruption training.
"These significant remediation efforts and full cooperation led to the resolution of this matter," Manning said. He said Scoular is a different company than it was when the conduct occurred and has zero tolerance for violations of its compliance policies.
Prosecutors credited that cooperation and remediation, cutting the penalty 25% from the bottom of the applicable guidelines range, the DOJ said. Scoular did not receive voluntary disclosure credit because it did not report the conduct to the Criminal Division's Fraud Section on its own.
Under the agreement, Scoular must keep cooperating with any related investigations, implement a compliance and ethics program designed to prevent and detect corruption and report periodically on its compliance overhaul over the three-year term.
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