United States v. Blondek, Tull, Castle, and Lowry 741 F. Supp. 116 (N.D. Tex. 1990)

United States v. Blondek, Tull, Castle, and Lowry 741 F.
Supp. 116 (N.D. Tex. 1990)
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Executive Summary
This case was between the state and four accused persons namely John
Blondek, Vernon R.Tull, Donald Castle and Darrel W. T. Lowry. They were
charged pursuant to section 18 U.S.C. § 371 for conspiring to infringe the
provisions of FCPA.It was not in dispute that the defendants Blondek and Tull
action of paying a bribe was illegal according to the FCPA and that they may
be prosecuted on the basis that they conspired to violate the FCPA. The
challenging question before the court was not whether congress ought to
have included foreign officials as being part of the people to be prosecuted
according to the Act but whether it has an intention to have them prosecuted
incase of payment of a bribe. More particularly, the issue was whether the
conspiracy statute which was passed years before the FCPA came into force
ought to cause the prosecution of foreign officials. This paper entails a
rigorous analysis of the issues that were raised during the cases and the
reasons that the court gave for opting not to prosecute the foreign officials
for receiving bribes.
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1.0 Introduction
The case before this court was concerning the foreign corrupt practices. At
all materials relevant to the case before the court, the Eagle Bus
Manufacturing Company was a company whose main activity was
manufacturing and selling of buses. The business was located in Brownsville,
Texas. It bears noting that Eagle was a subsidiary company whose parent
company was Greyhound Lines, Inc. (Greyhound), with its headquarters
located in Dallas Texas. On the other hand, Saskatchewan Transit Company
(STC) was a corporation whose owner was the government of the Province
of Saskatchewan, Canada. The corporation was mainly involved in bus
transportation services within that province. The main contention in this case
arose from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977(FCPA) 15 U S C
§ 78dd
which provided that it was unlawful for anyone to give money to a foreign
government official with the sole aim of obtaining or retaining a certain
business. It is imperative to note that the case was between the state and
four accused persons namely John Blondek, Vernon R.Tull, Donald Castle and
Darrel W. T. Lowry. They were charged pursuant to section 18 U.S.C. § 371
for conspiring to infringe the provisions of FCPA.
2.0 Facts
Between July 1989 and February 1990 within the Northern District of Texas
and its suburbs the 4 defendants were alleged to have unlawfully, willfully
and knowingly conspired amongst themselves and with other people who
were not before the Grand Jury to infringe the provisions of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 through the use of mails and other negotiable
instruments used in commercial transactions purporting to make
offers ,payments and promises to pay the officials of the government of the
Province of Saskatchewan so that they may influence the decisions that were
being made by the said officials. The aim of the defendants and other
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