Cognizant case: Cloud over trial

Less than five weeks before the US trial of a six-year-old case begins to determine whether two former executives of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTS) routed illicit payments through Larsen and Toubro Ltd to unnamed Indian government officials, it is unclear if an ex-Cognizant executive, the US government's "essential witness" will travel to testify when the case starts on 3 March.

- Varun Sood

The testimony of Srimanikandan Ramamoorthy, 51, a Chennai resident termed an essential witness by the US Department of Justice, is critical, according to two lawyers directly privy to the case proceedings, as he is the only witness said to have discussed the alleged $2 million bribe payment with executives of L&T and former executives of Cognizant.

Court documents reviewed by Mint show that Ramamoorthy, who signed a non-prosecution agreement with the US authorities in January 2019 and has since turned approver, has shared emails, many of which were marked to L&T executives, including current chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan, detailing how the bribe payments were orchestrated.

Subrahmanyan was the head of L&T's construction business in 2014 when some company employees are alleged to have paid $2 million in bribes to unnamed Tamil Nadu government officials to speed up approvals to build Cognizant's office campuses in Chennai.