Level/难度等级: Level 4 CEFR c1,c2;国内:大学,词汇：1010个
American Trap’: A French Executive’s View From a U.S. Prison Cell
“美国陷阱”：一个法国高管的牢狱之灾
Frenchman Frederic Pierucci’s nightmare began shortly after his airplane touched down in New York on a brisk April night in 2013.
2013年4月一个晴朗的夜晚，法国人弗雷德里克·皮耶鲁奇(Frederic Pierucci)的飞机降落在纽约后不久，他的噩梦就开始了。
Like the recently jailed car titan Carlos Ghosn, the former Alstom SA executive Pierucci was whisked away from his airplane, accused of financial misdeeds and thrown in jail.
就像最近入狱的汽车巨头卡洛斯·戈恩(Carlos Ghosn)一样，阿尔斯通(Alstom SA)前高管皮耶鲁奇(Pierucci) 在飞机上被迅速带走。他被控犯有财务不当行为，并被投入监狱。
The events surrounding his arrest open Pierucci’s book, “Le Piege Americain,” or “The American Trap,” which goes on sale in France on Wednesday — a few months after his five-year-long wrangle with the U.S. Department of Justice ended.
出狱后，皮耶鲁奇撰写了“美国陷阱”这本书。这本书周三在法国发售。出书前几月，皮耶鲁奇结束了与美国司法部长达五年的争执。
Over 386 pages, Pierucci describes life with hardened criminals in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island prisons, behind-the-scenes machinations with U.S. lawyers and prosecutors seeking a plea bargain and backroom tussles between CEOs and French politicians over a $10 billion transatlantic takeover.
在这本386页的书中，皮耶鲁奇描述了在宾夕法尼亚州和罗德岛州的监狱生活，与美国律师和检察官寻求认罪协议的幕后阴谋，以及首席执行官和法国政客之间关于100亿美元跨大西洋收购案的幕后角力。
The Pierucci and Ghosn cases are unrelated and have little in common.
皮耶鲁奇案和戈恩案没有关联，也没有什么共同点。
Pierucci landed in New York on a Cathay Pacific flight, while Ghosn was grabbed from his private plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport in November.
皮耶鲁奇乘坐国泰航空的航班降落在纽约，而戈恩于11月在东京羽田机场从他的私人飞机上被抓走。
Japanese prosecutors indicted Ghosn for alleged improprieties related to personal trading losses and the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman’s income at the carmaker, charges he denies.
日本检方指控戈恩存在个人交易损失和这位日产汽车公司(Nissan Motor Co.)前董事长在这家汽车制造商的收入有关的不当行为，但他否认了这些指控。
Pierucci, who ended up pleading guilty, was nabbed for his role in a worldwide bribery scandal that engulfed Alstom for nearly a decade.
皮耶鲁奇最终背锅，他因在阿尔斯通近十年的全球贿赂丑闻中所扮演的角色而被捕。
Corporate Intrigue
企业阴谋。
Still, the two cases have a common thread: Whiffs of corporate intrigue and politically sensitive dealmaking.
尽管如此，这两起案件有一个共同的主线：隐约的企业阴谋和**敏感的交易撮合。
In Ghosn’s case, his daughters have accused Nissan of concocting the charges to block a possible plan to merge the Japanese automaker and France’s Renault SA.
在戈恩的案件中，他的女儿们指责日产编造罪名，以阻止这家日本汽车制造商与法国雷诺汽车(Renault SA)合并的可能计划。
For Pierucci, his drawn-out legal quagmire only cleared after General Electric Co. had successfully secured a deal to swallow French rival Alstom’s energy business.
对皮耶鲁奇来说，直到通用电气(General Electric Co.)成功达成收购法国竞争对手阿尔斯通(Alstom)能源业务的协议后，他漫长的法律困境才得以清理。
Bitter and broken, Pierucci says former Alstom Chief Executive Officer Patrick Kron was spared in order to facilitate the 2015 agreement.
皮耶鲁奇感到痛苦和心碎，他说，为了促成2015年的协议，阿尔斯通前首席执行官帕特里克·克朗被免职。
“The American Trap,” which was co-written with French journalist Matthieu Aron, is a cautionary tale for globe-trotting executives at multinational companies increasingly facing the threat of litigation when they are allegedly on the wrong side of U.S. law.
与法国记者马蒂厄•阿隆(Matthieu Aron)合著的《美国陷阱》(The American Trap)一书，对那些在全球奔走的跨国公司高管来说，是一个警世故事，因为他们被指违反了美国法律，因而越来越多地面临诉讼威胁。
Bribery Case
受贿案。
For his part, Pierucci was snared under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
就皮耶鲁奇而言，他是根据美国的《反海外腐败法》陷入圈套的。
The extra-territorial law has allowed the DoJ to carry out anti-corruption probes around the world against non-U.S. companies and net billions in fines.
这项域外法律允许美国司法部在世界各地对非美国公司进行反腐败调查，并净赚数十亿美元的罚款。
While it has served to dissuade companies from paying bribes, it’s also drawn resentment against the U.S. for acting like a global enforcer and targeting foreign business rivals.
虽然它起到了劝阻企业行贿的作用，但它也引起了人们对美国的不满，因为美国表现得像一个全球执法者，把外国商业竞争对手作为目标。
In 2014, Alstom pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $772 million in fines, at the time the largest criminal penalty ever handed down under the U.S. anti-bribery law.
2014年，阿尔斯通认罪，并同意支付7.72亿美元的罚款，这是当时根据美国反贿赂法做出的最大一笔刑事处罚。
Prosecutors said the company paid tens of millions of dollars to secure $4 billion in contracts for projects for state-owned companies in the Bahamas, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.
检察官表示，该公司支付了数千万美元，为巴哈马、埃及、印度尼西亚、沙特阿拉伯和**的国有企业获得了约40亿美元的项目合同。
GE Deal
通用电气交易。
The accusations against Pierucci, 51, centered around a $118 million Indonesian power plant contract signed in 2005.
对51岁的皮耶鲁奇的指控主要围绕2005年签订的一份价值1.18亿美元的印尼电厂合同。
As part of his work to win the order for Alstom, which was struggling at the time, he helped hire outside “consultants” used to garner support among local officials.
在为当时处境艰难的阿尔斯通赢得订单的过程中，他帮助聘请了外部“顾问”，以获得当地官员的支持。
In his book, Pierucci described the practice as well-oiled, with a clearly defined procedure for approval by the company’s hierarchy.
皮耶鲁奇在书中形容这种做法运作良好，公司高层有明确的审批程序。
The executive was among more than a dozen targeted in the probes.
这名高管是调查的十几个目标之一。
Kron’s name was never cited and the former CEO was awarded a controversial 6.6 million-euro ($7.5 million) payout after the GE deal.
克朗的名字从未被提及，这位前首席执行官在通用电气交易后获得了一笔有争议的660万欧元(约合750万美元)的奖金。
Shareholders including the French government rejected the cash-and-shares package, but it was retained by Alstom’s board.
包括法国政府在内的股东拒绝了现金加股票的方案，但阿尔斯通董事会保留了该方案。
Kron was “undoubtedly” under pressure from the U.S. justice system when he negotiated the GE deal behind the French government’s back, according to former Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg, speaking to a parliamentary commission in 2017.
据法国前经济部长阿尔诺·蒙特布尔(Arnaud Monteburg)2017年在议会委员会发表讲话时表示，当克朗背着法国政府谈判通用电气交易时，“无疑”受到了来自美国司法系统的压力。
His successor and now French president, Emmanuel Macron, told lawmakers in 2015 — before the GE-Alstom deal was completed — that he was convinced of a “causal” link between the DoJ probe and Kron’s backing of the transaction.
他的继任者、现任法国总统伊曼纽尔·马克龙在2015年-在通用电气-阿尔斯通交易完成之前-对议员们表示，他相信美国司法部的调查与克朗对这笔交易的支持之间存在明显的“因果”联系。
“But we have no proof,” Macron said.
“但我们没有证据，”马克龙说。
“I don’t know whether the investigation weighed psychologically on Mr. Kron.”
“我不知道调查是否给克伦先生带来了心理压力。”
Pierucci contends that his own legal process and incarceration were dragged out to put pressure on Kron to remain at the helm of Alstom and push the GE deal through.
皮耶鲁奇辩称，他自己的法律程序和监禁被拖了下来，以向克朗施压，要求他继续执掌阿尔斯通，并推动通用电气的交易获得通过。
The DoJ didn’t immediately respond to queries on Pierucci’s claims.
美国司法部没有立即回应有关皮耶鲁奇主张的询问。
Protection Advice
保护建议。
“I was never subject to any blackmail, I never had any pressure of any kind, either from the Americans or any other jurisdiction,” Kron told the parliamentary commission.
克伦对议会委员会说：“我从来没有受到过任何勒索，我从来没有受到过任何形式的压力，无论是来自美国人还是来自任何其他司法管辖区的压力。”
“I never benefited from any protection, the insinuations are unfounded and insulting.”
“我从未从任何保护中受益，那些含沙射影的说法是没有根据的，是侮辱性的。”
A spokesman for Kron said the executive has nothing to add to those comments.
克朗的一位发言人表示，该高管对这些评论没有什么要补充的。
GE said it won’t comment on legal proceedings initiated against Alstom well before its acquisition of the French company’s energy assets.
通用电气说，它不会对早在阿尔斯通收购这家法国公司能源资产之前就对其提起的法律诉讼置评。
It also said it had nothing to say on Pierucci’s book and its allegations.
它还表示，对皮耶鲁奇的书及其指控无可奉告。
Ironically, the Alstom deal — the biggest acquisition completed by GE — has been a huge disappointment for the U.S. group, with a majority of its $23 billion writedown last year stemming from the purchase.
具有讽刺意味的是，阿尔斯通的交易-通用电气完成的最大一笔收购-对这家美国集团来说是一个非常令人失望的交易，其去年230亿美元的减记中有大部分来自这笔收购。
Shortly after the jailed Pierucci pleaded guilty in the U.S., he was fired from Alstom and the company stopped paying his legal fees.
在被监禁的皮耶鲁奇在美国认罪后不久，他被阿尔斯通解雇，公司也停止支付他的律师费。
In all, he spent just over two years behind bars and about three more years on bail.
总而言之，他在监狱里度过了两年多一点的时间，在保释期间又度过了大约三年。
He’s now back in France advising companies and employees on the U.S. anti-corruption law and how best to protect themselves.
他现在回到法国，就美国反腐败法以及如何最好地保护自己向公司和员工提供建议。
“France needs to beef up its own laws against corruption so it can face the U.S. on equal terms,” Pierucci said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
皮耶鲁奇周二在接受电话采访时表示：“法国需要加强自己的反腐败法律，这样它才能平等地面对美国。”
“This is underground economic warfare.”
“这是地下经济战。”