U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building/photo by Diego M. Radzinschi

The ex-chief operating officer for Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., a global tech services company accused of bribing government officials in India to fast-track a construction project, has reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Sridhar Thiruvengadam, who worked for Cognizant for more than two decades, agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty and cooperate with investigators as part of a settlement offer that the SEC accepted on Sept. 13. 

Thiruvengadam, an Indian national and resident, joined Cognizant in 1994 as a manager and was appointed COO in late 2013. He was placed on administrative leave in late 2016 and resigned two years later, according to the SEC. 

His settlement deal follows Cognizant's agreement in February to pay a $25 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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 and Schwartz also are accused of altering change-order requests in an attempt to hide the illicit payments.

Schwartz's attorney, Roberto Finzi, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, said in an earlier statement that his client is "totally innocent and did nothing wrong. He will fight these false and unfair charges‎."

As for Thiruvengadam, the SEC alleged that he participated in two video conferences in which Schwartz and Coburn authorized a bribery payment and its concealment through the falsification of Cognizant's books and records. 

Thiruvengadam also is accused of helping to cover up the alleged scheme by falsely certifying that he was unaware of any fraud involving senior management when he signed management representation letters for Cognizant's audits from 2014 through 2016. He could not be reached for comment. 

A Cognizant spokesman wrote in an email Monday that the SEC's civil resolution with Thiruvengadam "centered around real estate transactions, does not involve new allegations of any wrongdoing by the company or any current Cognizant executive, and does not involve our services or work with clients.  

"As a company, Cognizant is committed to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for any illegal or improper activity," he added. "We have no further comment on any further actions related to this matter at this time."

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