Washington, DC - The former president of Transport Logistics International Inc. (TLI), a Maryland-based transportation company that provides services for the transportation of nuclear materials to customers in the United States and abroad, was sentenced to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to bribe a Russian official in exchange for obtaining contracts for the company.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur of the District of Maryland, Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Inspector General Teri L. Donaldson of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (DOE-OIG) made the announcement.
On Nov. 22, 2019, after a three-week trial, Mark T. Lambert, 57, was convicted of four counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), two counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud. Lambert was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland. In addition to his prison sentence, Judge Chuang ordered Lambert to pay a $20,000 fine. Lambert must report to the U.S. Marshals Service by Feb. 15, 2021, to begin serving his prison sentence.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Lambert participated in a scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide. Mikerin was later president of TENEX’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, TENAM Corporation. Lambert and other members of the conspiracy used code words like “lucky figures,” “LF,” “lucky numbers,” and “cake” to describe the bribes, and they communicated with Mikerin about the scheme at his alias e-mail account where Mikerin used the name “Marvin Jodel.”
The trial evidence demonstrated that, for approximately seven years, in order to secure contracts with TENEX, Lambert conspired with others at TLI to make over $1.5 million in corrupt and fraudulent bribe payments to Mikerin through offshore shell companies Mikerin directed them to pay. To conceal the bribe payments, Lambert and his co-conspirators caused fake invoices to be prepared, purportedly from TENEX to TLI, that described services that were never provided. Lambert and others then used the fake invoices to justify and conceal the bribes they caused to be transmitted by wire to shell company bank accounts in Latvia, Cyprus, and Switzerland.
Two other defendants have pleaded guilty in this matter. On June 17, 2015, Daren Condrey, Lambert’s former co-president, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud. He is awaiting sentencing. On Aug. 31, 2015, Russian national Vadim Mikerin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison. On March 12, 2018, TLI entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice in connection with the bribery scheme.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and DOE-OIG. Assistant Chief Vanessa A. Sisti and Trial Attorney Derek J. Ettinger of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David I. Salem of the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case.
