The U.S. Justice Department said that former Bolivian Government Minister Arturo Carlos Murillo Prijic, 57, former Bolivian official Sergio Rodrigo Mendez Mendizabal, 51, and a third unnamed Bolivian official participated in the bribery scheme between November 2019 and April 2020.

The defendants were arrested late last week in Florida and Georgia, the department said.

The Justice Department said the bribery scheme related to efforts by the three Americans – Luis Berkman, 58, Bryan Berkman, 36, and Philip Lichtenfeld, 48 – to win a $5.6 million contract to supply tear gas and “other non-lethal equipment” to Bolivia’s Ministry of Defense.

The department said that over a six-month period, the Americans paid $602,000 in bribes to Bolivian officials for the benefit of Murillo, Mendez and the third unnamed official.

The department said that the two Berkmans and Lichtenfeld laundered payments to the Bolivians through bank accounts in Florida and Bolivia and arranged cash payments of $582,000 to Murillo and Mendez.

All five defendants face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and could face maximum prison sentences of up to 20 years, the Justice Department said.

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