Individual FCPA Charges
Reuters reports:
“Two men including an oil equipment supply firm executive have been arrested on charges related to an alleged scheme to corruptly secure energy contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned energy company, the U.S. Justice Department said Sunday. Roberto Rincon, the president of Texas-based Tradequip Services & Marine, was arrested on Wednesday in Houston on charges including that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and engaged in money laundering, a Justice Department spokesman said. A second defendant, Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas of Coral Gables, Florida, was arrested on Wednesday in Miami on the same charges plus one count, said the Justice Department spokesman, Peter Carr. The charges relate to what the Justice Department called a fraudulent and corrupt scheme to secure energy contracts from Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned energy company. Lawyers for Rincon, 55, and Shiera, 52, could not be identified on Sunday. Further details on the case were not immediately available. No charging documents have been made public yet. It was also not clear if case related to Tradequip, which describes itself as an oil field supply company. The firm on its website lists PDVSA as a client, and it is registered on Venezuela’s national contractors registry. Tradequip did not respond to a call and email seeking comment. PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment.”
See here for the criminal indictment.
Sweet Group
A follow-up to a U.K. SFO enforcement action previously announced in early December (see here).
Last Friday, the SFO announced:
“Sweett Group PLC has … pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to an offence under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 regarding conduct in the Middle East. The Serious Fraud Office charged Sweett Group PLC earlier this month, having opened an investigation on 14th July 2014 into the company in relation to its activities in the UAE and elsewhere. Sweett Group PLC will be sentenced on 12th February 2016 at Southwark Crown Court.”
The only publicly available document at this point states:
“Between 1 December 2012 and 1 December 2015 Sweet Group PLC, being a relevant commercial organisation, failed to prevent the bribing of Khaled Al Badie by an associated person, namely Cyril Sweet International Limited, their servants and agents, which said bribing was intended to obtain or retain business, and/or an advantage in the conduct of business, for Sweet Group PLC, namely securing and retaining a contract with Al Ain Ahia Insurance Company for project management and cost consulting services in relation to the building of a hotel in Dubai, contrary to Section 7(1) of the Bribery Act 2010.”
The Sweet Group action closely follows the Standard Bank failure to prevent bribery enforcement action (see here for prior posts) and represents the second instance under the Bribery Act of a business organization being held accountable for “failure to prevent”foreign bribery.
Global Fraud Survey
According to Kroll’s annual Global Fraud survey (a survey of 768 senior executives worldwide from a broad range of industries and functions from January through March 2015):
11% of companies have been affected by corruption and bribery during the past 12 months (the 6th highest type of fraud on the list) and 40% of companies describe themselves as highly or moderately vulnerable to this type of fraud (the 5th highest on the list).
Corruption and bribery were the highest among companies in India, Russia and China.
