On February 18, 2026, Charles Hunter Hobson, a former vice president of Corsa Coal Corporation, was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania for his role in a bribery scheme involving government officials in Egypt. According to federal prosecutors, Hobson worked with co-conspirators to bribe officials with Al Nasr Company for Coke and Chemicals, which was then a state-owned and state-controlled chemical manufacturing company in Egypt, to secure approximately $140 million in coal supply contracts for Corsa. The jury found Hobson guilty of all seven of the charged offenses, specifically one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), two counts of FCPA anti-bribery violations, two counts of money laundering, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Hobson is currently scheduled to be sentenced on June 25, 2026.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between 2016 and 2020, Hobson was working as the vice president in charge of international sales for Corsa when he conspired with others to make bribe payments to Al Nasr officials. The co-conspirators allegedly caused more than $4.8 million to be paid to a third-party intermediary in Egypt. The funds, which were purportedly disguised as sales commissions, were also allegedly laundered through bank accounts in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. According to federal prosecutors, the intermediary also secretly paid Hobson more than $200,000 in kickbacks for his role in the scheme.
Hobson was charged in March 2022 after another Corsa executive, Frederick Cushmore, Jr., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA in November 2021 for his role in the scheme. As part of Cushmore’s plea agreement, he admitted that he was responsible for Corsa’s business relationship with Al Nasr and ensured that the scheme continued from approximately 2018 to 2020. Cushmore is currently awaiting sentencing. The Department of Justice also previously resolved its investigation into Corsa in March 2023, when the DOJ declined to prosecute Corsa for violating the FCPA because the company voluntarily self-disclosed the misconduct, cooperated with DOJ investigators, and timely and appropriately remediated the misconduct. Corsa was required to pay disgorgement as part of the declination. The DOJ calculated that Corsa had earned profits of approximately $32.7 million from the bribery scheme. However, Corsa established that it was unable to pay that amount, and the DOJ and Corsa agreed to disgorgement of $1.2 million.
The prosecution of Hobson had been halted when President Trump issued an executive order pausing all FCPA enforcement actions for a period of six months. However, in April 2025, federal prosecutors filed a notice informing the court of their intention to proceed to trial on their FCPA case against Hobson.
DOJ Press Release | Verdict | Order | DOJ – Corsa Coal Corporation Case Summary | Indictment