An employee of the medical device company Stryker was charged with accepting a $75,000 bribe for his assistance in securing a contract between an unidentified metallurgical technology company and Stryker.

 

Daniel Lawyrnowicz, 46, was charged with violating the Federal Travel Act for accepting $75,000 from the technology company in consideration for his assistance in obtaining the contract.

Stryker said it would not comment on the case.

Federal officials alleged that on December 22, 2015, an individual representing the technology company made a consensually recorded call to Lawyrnowicz during which the representative said he was nervous about a purported upcoming government audit of his company, and he raised concerns about the $75,000 payment to Lawyrnowicz.

Here’s part of the transcript of the call from the complaint:

Representative: “I am more worried about that 75k in cash that eh you know that we gave you, I don’t know if that ever comes up, or we deny it right, obviously.”

Lawrynowicz: “Yeah, yeah . . . when is that happening?”

Representative: “It’s ongoing, they called us to say they are auditing us and they just showed up. . .”

Lawrynowicz: “Let’s get a story together so that ah you know it all has legs and a tail.”

The count of violating the Federal Travel Act carries a maximum potential punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater.