Global tech services company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. has agreed to pay a $25 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday.  

The New Jersey-based Fortune 200 company's former chief legal officer, Steven Schwartz, and its ex-president, Gordon Coburn, now face criminal charges for allegedly authorizing a building contractor to pay more than $3.6 million in bribes to a government official in India. The alleged payments were for a permit to build a 2.7 million-square-foot campus in Chennai, India.

Coburn, 55, and Schwartz, 51, also are accused of altering change order requests in an attempt to hide the illicit payments.

“Mr. Schwartz is totally innocent and did nothing wrong. He will fight these false and unfair charges‎,” said Schwartz's attorney, Roberto Finzi, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. 

Former state and federal prosecutor Joel Meyers, a partner at Bohrer PLLC in New York who heads the firm's white collar defense and government investigations practice, also is defending Schwartz. 

Cognizant vice chairman and CEO Francisco D'Souza noted Friday in a written statement that the company, which did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, had “voluntarily and promptly notified U.S. authorities of the potential issues in India more than two years ago, and cooperated extensively with their investigations.”

“We undertook a comprehensive internal investigation under the oversight of the audit committee of the board of directors, with the assistance of outside counsel,” he added. “We have also made further enhancements to our compliance processes, procedures and resources. It is important to note that this entire matter did not involve our work with clients or affect our ability to provide the quality services our clients expect from us.”

D'Souza did not directly address the 12-count indictment charging Coburn and Schwartz with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, three counts of violating the FCPA, seven counts of falsifying books and records, and one count of circumventing and failing to implement internal accounting controls.

“The allegations in the indictment … describe a sophisticated international bribery scheme authorized and concealed by C-suite executives of a publicly-traded multinational company,” said Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Criminal Division and a former partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

Schwartz served as Cognizant's CLO, chief corporate affairs officer and executive vice president from 2001 to October 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. The alleged bribery scheme occurred in 2014. After leaving Cognizant, Schwartz served as general counsel for Consumer Reports from January 2017 to February 2018. Consumer Reports announced in June 2018 that it had hired a new GC.

Coburn joined Cognizant in 1998 as its chief financial officer and served as president from 2012 to September 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile.  An attempt to speak with Coburn was not immediately successful.

He and Schwartz were slated to appear Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk of the District of New Jersey.