SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Eric Pulier

Litigation Release No. 25103 / May 28, 2021

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Eric Pulier, Civil Action No. 2:17-cv-07124 (C.D. Cal. filed Sept. 27, 2017)

On May 20, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a final judgment, by consent, against Eric Pulier, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission charged in connection with a commercial bribery scheme.

The SEC's complaint, filed September 27, 2017, alleged that Pulier, a former IT executive at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and co-founder of ServiceMesh, Inc. (SMI), a cloud-computing company, paid more than $2 million in bribes to former executives at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in order to entice CBA to enter into contracts with CSC. The SEC further alleged that Pulier orchestrated the transactions so that SMI could receive a $98 million earn-out payment from CSC as part of the acquisition, of which he personally received $30 million.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, Pulier consented to a final judgment permanently enjoining him from violating the anti-fraud and the books and records provisions of the federal securities laws, and ordering him to pay $3,900,000 of disgorgement, $649,976.48 of prejudgment interest, and a $260,000 civil penalty.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Catherine W. Brilliant, and the case was supervised by Ansu N. Banerjee. Douglas Miller, Terry Miller, and Kathryn Wanner served as trial counsel, and were supervised by Amy J. Longo. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the New South Wales Police Force.