Norway Announces Bribery Enforcement Action Concerning Conduct in Congo
As highlighted in this prior post, in April 2025 PetroNor E&P ASA (an Africa-focused independent oil and gas exploration and production company listed in Norway) announced the closure of a DOJ investigation regarding allegations of corruption – while also noting that an investigation by law enforcement in its home country was still ongoing.
Økokrim, a law enforcement agency in Norway, recently announced bribery charges against a wholly owned subsidiary of Petronor E&P ASA and two individuals in connection with a bribery scheme in the Republic of Congo.
According to the release, “the bribes mentioned in the indictment are linked to the President of Congo and his close family members, and the value of the bribes is particularly high.”
The release further states:
Do They Know? Do They Even Care?
In recent years, some who comment on FCPA issues and then hit the “publish” button on their computers are overtly partisan.
I sometimes wonder whether these individuals are aware that the topic they are writing about has been an FCPA topic for several decades or – even if they are aware – whether they even care.
Case in point is this latest rant from a “commentator” seemingly upset that the U.S. is open to exploring relationships in the Democratic Republic of Congo given the abundance of critical minerals in that country.
Glencore Resolves An Approximately $443 Million Net FCPA Enforcement Action
In mid-2018 Glencore (a commodities company incorporated in the United Kingdom and headquartered in Switzerland disclosed that it was under scrutiny by the DOJ. (See here for the prior post).
Specifically, the company disclosed:
“Glencore Ltd, a subsidiary of Glencore plc, has received a subpoena dated 2 July, 2018 from the US Department of Justice to produce documents and other records with respect to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and United States money laundering statutes. The requested documents relate to the Glencore Group’s business in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela from 2007 to present. Glencore is reviewing the subpoena and will provide further information in due course as appropriate.”
DOJ Announces Guilty Pleas By Former Unaoil Executives
Yesterday, the DOJ announced that Cyrus Ahsani and Saman Ahsani (the former CEO and Chief Operations Officer of Monaco-based Unaoil) pleaded guilty in March 2019 to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA for their roles in a scheme to corruptly facilitate millions of dollars in bribe payments to officials in multiple countries. The DOJ also announced that Steven Hunter (a former business development manager at Unaoil) pleaded guilty in August 2018 to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.
Prior Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions against Rolls-Royce and SBM Offshore (see here and here) involved, in whole or in part, Unaoil and the Ahsani information refers to approximately 25 other companies including approximately ten U.S. based issuers. Thus, it is likely that additional FCPA enforcement actions involving, in whole or in part, Unaoil will be forthcoming.
In Depth Into The Och-Ziff FCPA Enforcement Action
Last week, the DOJ and SEC announced (here and here) a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Och-Ziff Capital Management Group (and a related entity) for improper business practices in various African countries. The aggregate settlement amount was $412 million (a $213 million DOJ criminal penalty and a $199 million SEC resolution consisting of disgorgement and prejudgment interest), the 4th largest FCPA settlement amount of all-time.
As highlighted in this previous post, the SEC also found Daniel Och (CEO) and Joel Frank (CFO) culpable for certain of the improper conduct. As indicated in the post, this represents what is believed to be the first time in FCPA history that the SEC also found the current CEO and CFO of the issuer company liable, to some extent, for company FCPA violations. Moreover, the $2.2 million Och agreed to pay, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, is the largest settlement amount in FCPA history by an individual in an SEC action.
Whether the Och-Ziff enforcement action is the “first time a hedge fund has been held to account for violating the FCPA” (as the DOJ stated in its release) is a debatable point. (See here for the 2007 FCPA enforcement action on the DOJ’s FCPA website against hedge fund Omega Advisors).