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Petrofac Resolves Bribery Act Enforcement Action

By on October 5, 2021 in 2021 Enforcement Actions, Iraq, Oil and Gas Industry, Petrofac, Saudi Arabia, Serious Fraud Office, SFO, Unaoil, United Arab Emirates
Petrofac

Petrofac (a U.K. based oil and gas company with ADRs registered with the SEC) has been under scrutiny since 2016 regarding its relationship with Unaoil. (See here for the prior post).

In 2019, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office announced that David Lufkin (the former Global Head of Sales for Petrofac International Ltd.) pleaded guilty to eleven counts of bribery related to “the making of corrupt offers to influence the award of contracts to Petrofac worth in excess of USD $730 million in Iraq and in excess of USD $3.5 billion in Saudi Arabia.” (See here).

Recently, the SFO announced that it has “secured the conviction of Petrofac Limited for seven separate counts of failure to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017.”

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Foreign Official Reports Attempted Briber Leading To Enforcement Action

By on April 29, 2020 in 2006 Enforcement Actions, Bribe Offers, DOJ Enforcement Action, Faheem Mousa Salam, Individual Enforcement Action, Iraq, Military and Law Enforcement Products Industry, Titan, Undercover Investigations
sigir

[This post is part of a periodic series regarding “old” FCPA enforcement actions]

The 2006 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Faheem Mousa Salam had an unusual origin in that the foreign official Salam attempted to bribe – a senior Iraqi police official – reported the conduct to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). The police official then became a confidential informant leading to an undercover operation by SIGIR with an agent posing as a Procurement Officer for the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT – a multinational organization tasked with training, mentoring and equipping the Iraq Police Force and responsible for ordering and supplying materials to the Iraqi Police Force).

The enforcement action is also notable in that Salam was prosecuted, plead guilty, and was sentenced to three years in prison for offering the bribe.

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DOJ Announces Guilty Pleas By Former Unaoil Executives

By on October 31, 2019 in 2019 Enforcement Actions, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Congo, Cyrus Ahsani, DOJ Enforcement Action, Foreign Nationals, Foreign Official, Foreign Officials, Gaining Access to Confidential Documents, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Oil and Gas Industry, Saman Ahsani, Steven Hunter, Syria, Unaoil, Uncategorized
unaoil

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.

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The Other Shoe Drops On TechnipFMC As The SEC Announces A $5 Million Enforcement Action

By on September 24, 2019 in 2019 Enforcement Actions, Iraq, Oil and Gas Industry, SEC Enforcement Action, TechnipFMC, Third Parties
othershoe

The SEC’s fiscal year ends on September 30th. Thus, it is likely that many loose ends are being closed this week and, with history as a guide, there is likely to be more FCPA enforcement actions this week.

Most FCPA enforcement actions against issuers that include a DOJ and SEC component are resolved on the same day. However, as noted in prior posts here and here concerning the DOJ’s net $81.9 million FCPA enforcement action against TechnipFMC in June 2019, the SEC prong of the enforcement action was left open.

This loose end was closed yesterday as the SEC announced an approximate $5 million enforcement action against the company “for violations of the FCPA by FMC Technologies prior to its 2017 merger with Technip S.A.”

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TechnipFMC Joins FCPA Repeat Offender Club, Resolves Net $81.9 Million DOJ FCPA Enforcement Action, SEC Enforcement Action Forthcoming, Individual Criminally Charged

By on June 27, 2019 in 2019 Enforcement Actions, Brazil, DOJ Enforcement Action, Hiring Family Members of Foreign Officials, Iraq, Keppel Offshore & Marine, Oil and Gas Industry, Repeat Offenders, Technip, TechnipFMC, Unaoil, Zwi Skornicki
technipfmc

That’s a dense headline, but there was much at play in this DOJ announcement from earlier this week.

First, Technip joined the ever growing list of FCPA repeat offenders (see here) as the company previously resolved a $340 million FCPA enforcement action in 2010 concerning conduct at Bonny Island, Nigeria. (See here and here for prior posts). For good measure, as highlighted in this prior post, in 2016 FMC Technologies resolved a so-called non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement action.

Second, most FCPA enforcement actions against issuers that include a DOJ and SEC component are resolved on the same day, however this week’s development was DOJ only and this company press release states “TechnipFMC has reached an agreement in principle with the SEC Staff, subject to final SEC approval.”

Third, in connection with the same core conduct alleged in the DOJ enforcement action the DOJ also criminally charged Zwi Skornicki (a citizen of Brazil).

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