Former President Of Maryland-Based Transportation Company Found Guilty Of Federal Charges, Including Violating The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal jury today convicted Mark Lambert, 56, of Mount Airy, Maryland, 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, for his role in a scheme to bribe an official at a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy.  Lambert is 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, including to the Russian Federation.

The guilty verdict was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Inspector General Teri L. Donaldson of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (DOE-OIG); and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to the evidence presented at his three-week trial, Lambert engaged in a scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX. 

The trial evidence demonstrated that, over the course of years, Lambert conspired with others at TLI to make the corrupt and fraudulent bribery and kickback payments to Mikerin through offshore bank accounts associated with shell companies, at Mikerin’s direction.  In order 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, and then Lambert and others caused TLI to wire the corrupt payments for those purported services to shell companies in Latvia, Cyprus and Switzerland. 

Lambert faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud.  He also faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each of two counts of wire fraud; a maximum of five years in federal prison for each of four counts of violating the FCPA.  The jury acquitted Lambert of three counts of violating the FCPA and of money laundering.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.  U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang has scheduled sentencing for Lambert on March 9, 2020 at 2 p.m.

Vadim Mikerin, 60, a Russian official formerly residing in Chevy Chase, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering involving violations of the FCPA and was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

United States Attorney Robert K. Hur and Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski commended the DOE-OIG and the FBI for their work in the investigation, and thanked the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and law enforcement in Switzerland, Latvia and Cyprus for providing valuable assistance with the investigation and prosecution of the case.  Mr. Hur and Mr. Benczkowski thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney David I. Salem and Assistant Chief Vanessa A. Sisti and Trial Attorney Derek J. Ettinger of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, who are prosecuting the case.

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