KNOXVILLE, Tenn — A Knoxville man was arrested Thursday and charged with foreign bribery, money laundering, and wire fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment states that 46-year-old Charles Hunter Hobson engaged in the bribery and money laundering scheme between late 2016 and early 2020.
During part of that time, Hobson was vice president of a coal company in Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the company’s business relationship with an Egyptian state-owned and state-controlled company, Al Nasr Company for Coke and Chemicals (Al Nasr), the government alleges.
According to a DOJ news release, Hobson and others paid bribes to Al Nasr officials in Egypt to obtain approximately $143 million in coal contracts.
To start the bribery scheme, the indictment alleges, Hobson and others caused Al Nasr to pay commissions to a sales intermediary who passed on bribes to Al Nasr officials in exchange for the coal contracts. The corrupt commission payments were shifted from a bank account in the United States to a bank account in the United Arab Emirates.
The indictment also alleges that Hobson conspired to secretly get a portion of the commissions paid to the sales intermediary as kickbacks.
Officials said Hobson has been charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, two counts of violating the FCPA, one count of conspiracy to launder money, two counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
He faces up to five years in prison for each of the bribery conspiracy and bribery charges, and up to 20 years in prison for each of the money laundering conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud charges, according to the press release.
Hobson will make his initial court appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.
The FBI’s International Corruption Unit in Washington, D.C., and the Washington Field Office are investigating the case.