French firm IDEMIA paid Nepali brokers through foreign accounts to secure lucrative contracts, complaint says
Summary
A complaint alleges French firm IDEMIA secretly paid Nepali brokers through foreign accounts to secure government contracts, violating anti-corruption and money laundering laws.
Key Points
- A complaint accuses IDEMIA SAS of routing payments through foreign accounts to Nepali brokers to win government contracts in Nepal.
- IDEMIA and local intermediary Siddhartha Raj Pandey are implicated in offshore payments linked to Nepal's passport, driver's license, and vehicle registration projects.
- Nepal's laws prohibit undisclosed foreign payments and undeclared foreign bank accounts, which the transactions appear to violate.
- The case highlights vulnerabilities in Nepal's procurement system and ongoing challenges with corruption and opaque bidding processes.
