Santa Monica CEO Denies Massive Bribery Scheme

SANTA MONICA, CA – The former head of a Santa Monica-based technology company pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges alleging paying $2.5 million in a bribery scheme to generate money for shareholders. Eric Pulier, 50, the founder and former chief executive of ServiceMesh Inc., was granted release on a $250,000 bond by a U.S. Magistrate Judge who set a trial date of Dec. 5, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Pulier was charged last month in Los Angeles with allegedly paying $2.5 million in bribes to former information technology executives at Commonwealth Bank of Australia to approve millions of dollars in contracts that inflated ServiceMesh revenues and fraudulently caused Computer Sciences Corporation to pay a nearly $100 million incentive bonus as part of CSC's purchase of the cloud software company, according to federal prosecutors.

As ServiceMesh's largest shareholder, Pulier received about $30 million of the bonus, prosecutors allege. The 15-count indictment details a bribery and kickback scheme that developed over several years and involved two shell corporations.

The indictment also charges Jon Waldron, a former manager at CBA, with participating in the scheme by facilitating the approval of contracts with ServiceMesh in exchange for about $2 million in bribes, most of which was allegedly paid to him through a shell company in New Zealand.

Waldron remains in Australia facing related charges brought by Australian authorities, according to prosecutors.

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock