KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — French infrastructure company Alstom SA that was previously fined for corruption in Malaysia could face fresh bribery charges in the United Kingdom, the Bloomberg news service reported today.

Citing sources, Bloomberg said the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) recently concluded a five-year investigation into the utility and transport firm that was fined €31 million (RM140 million) in 2011 by Swiss authorities for failing to curb bribery here as well as in Latvia and Tunisia.

The SFO said in 2011 it suspected that Alstom gave money to companies that acted as “bogus consultants” to bribe overseas officials for contracts from 2004 to 2010, according to court papers at the time.

The British agency arrested three members of Alstom’s board in the UK in 2010 over allegations of bribery, money laundering and false accounting.

“We inherited this investigation. It has been given resource and tight focus. I anticipate significant developments in due course,” SFO director David Green told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

The company is facing mounting probes in other countries as well.

In Sao Paulo, a prosecutor is preparing to ask a judge to halt Alstom’s operations in Brazil and cancel its registration in the country after the company was accused of paying bribes, an official familiar with the case said last month.

The country’s Federal Justice opened a criminal lawsuit on February 18 against 11 people accused of participating in the bribes.

Following the 2011 fine, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advised MRT Corp to reject Alstom’s bid then for the Klang Valley MRT — the nation’s largest and most expensive infrastructure project to date — over the unresolved allegations of graft.

MACC investigations into the claims against Alstom also uncovered its link to an Umno leader and former mentri besar whose firm allegedly acted as in intermediary to help the firm secure contracts.

Representatives of Alstom here previously denied it had been punished for endemic corrupt practices, insisting that the fines were for “corporate negligence” and the incidents in Malaysia were “isolated”.

Alstom touts itself as the “largest original equipment manufacturer” in Malaysia and is involved in key energy projects in the country and the region.

In 2011, the same year it was fined by Swiss authorities, it won a RM2.8 billion job from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to equip the latter’s 1 gigawatt Manjung coal-fired plant with power generation machinery.

The now-beleaguered firm previously boasted a stellar record in securing core supply projects here, which included the construction of power plants in Lumut and Kuala Langat as well as environmental control fitments for facilities in Tanjung Bin and Jimah.

It also installed the hydro turbines, generator and supporting infrastructure for the 250MW Hulu Terengganu hydro power plant, from a contract won in 2010 from TNB.

The firm was most recently in Malaysian news when the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, in which Alstom was one of two turnkey developers, racked up an extra RM1.3 billion in cost overruns that were highlighted by the Auditor-General’s Report last year.

Alstom shares fell 3.6 per cent to €19.45 in Paris yesterday.