Category: Bribery

Sanctioned Russian Oligarchs Linked to £800m Worth of U.K. Property

Bribery, Corruption
A dozen sanctioned Russians are linked to an estimated £800m worth of property in the UK, analysis by the BBC reveals. Multi-million pound country manors in the south of England and luxury flats in London’s most expensive areas are among the homes which have been snapped up by figures linked to Vladimir Putin. Some of the individuals deny ownership of the mansions, which may mean they are beyond the reach of the sanctions. To get to the bottom of who owns what, we carried out a detailed trawl of leaked offshore documents, the Land Registry and court papers – as…

How Procurement at Coca-Cola Enterprises Unearthed a £1.5m Bribery Scam

Bribery, Corruption, Prosecutions
An investigation initiated by the procurement team at Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) led to the discovery of a nine-year contracts-for-bribes scam. Noel Corry – who was on £62,500 in his role as electrical and automation manager at CCE – took bribes of £1.5m in exchange for confidential information to help favoured bidders win contracts, Southwark Crown Court was told. Corry has pleaded guilty to five counts of corruption and was due to be sentenced yesterday (13 April). He ensured large volumes of work at CCE went to Boulting Group Limited (now known as WABGS), Tritec Systems Limited, and Electron Systems…

Police Raid Trade Union Headquarters as Part of Bribery and Fraud Investigation

Bribery, Fraud, Investigation, Money Laundering
Police have raided the headquarters of Unite, one of the UK’s largest and most powerful trade unions, as part of a bribery, fraud and money laundering investigation. Sky News understands 15 to 20 officers attended the search yesterday at the union’s central London headquarters and left the building with boxes of files, paper and a computer. A Unite spokesman confirmed to Sky News: “A Unite employee is subject to a criminal investigation by the police. “On Wednesday 6th April, the employee’s office at Unite HQ, in Holborn, London, was accessed and searched by the police under warrant.” The raid was…

Ex-Goldman Banker Convicted of Bribery, Money Laundering Conspiracy Charges in 1MDB Case

Bribery, Corruption, Prosecutions
NEW YORK, April 8(Reuters) – Former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker Roger Ng was convicted by a U.S. jury on Friday of corruption charges related to his role in helping loot hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund. The charges stemmed from one of the biggest financial scandals in history. Prosecutors charged Ng, Goldman’s former top investment banker for Malaysia, for conspiring to violate an anti-corruption law and launder money. They said he helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from the fund, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. Ng, 49, had…

Microsoft Fired Employees After Allegations of Bribery in the Middle East and Africa, a Report Says

Bribery
A former Microsoft employee accused the tech giant of turning a blind eye on employees, subcontractors, and government operators engaging in bribery. The Wall Street Journal first reported the story. In an essay published Friday on Lioness, an outlet that documents stories from whistleblowers, Yasser Elabd brought to light accusations of Microsoft employees using local partner companies to help sell the company’s products to customers. In a statement sent to Insider, Becky Lenaburg, deputy general counsel at Microsoft said: “We believe we’ve previously investigated these allegations, which are many years old, and addressed them. We cooperated with government agencies to…

DOJ Promises Robust Anti-Bribery Enforcement Despite Dip in Cases

Bribery, Corruption
A senior Justice Department official cautions against reading too much into a decline in the number of corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases A senior DOJ official said the department has a robust pipeline of cases and he would expect some significant resolutions in the next year. The U.S. Justice Department’s enforcement of a key antibribery law appeared to ebb last year, with prosecutors levying fines against only three companies for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. However, a senior Justice Department official is seeking to dispel the notion that prosecutors have taken their foot off the pedal. “I…

Ex-Goldman Banker: ‘Bribes’ Made 1MDB Business Possible

Bribery
Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, once hailed for bringing the bank lucrative Malaysian business, has told a court that “bribes and kickbacks” made the deals possible. Mr Leissner was testifying in the trial of his former colleague, Roger Ng. Prosecutors say the two men helped divert billions from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund to be used in bribes for politicians and others. Mr Ng, who is on trial over the matter, has denied wrongdoing. Mr Leissner, the former boss of Goldman’s Southeast Asia unit, told a New York courtroom on Wednesday that Mr Ng was a key banker for…

Will 2022 be a Year of Action on Illicit Finance?

Bribery, Corruption, Fraud, Money Laundering
The US Strategy on Countering Corruption promises a step change in its response to illicit finance. Can the UK government step up too? There was a time in the not so distant past when the UK was genuinely a leader in the global response to illicit finance. Yes, the country has been a magnet for dirty money and its beneficiaries for decades as a result of policy decisions (for example, investor visas) and neglect (such as underinvestment in the policing response, the national Financial Intelligence Unit and suspicious activity reporting system). But awareness of the challenges posed by illicit finance…

Former Petrofac Executive Ordered to Pay £140,000 Over Bribery Case

Bribery, Prosecutions
A former Petrofac executive has been ordered to pay £140,000 over bribery offences in the Middle East. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) secured a confiscation order during a hearing today at the Southwark Crown Court against former head of sales at Petrofac, David Lufkin. In October, Mr Lufkin was handed a two-year sentence, suspended for 18 months, for making bribery payments to win oil and gas contracts for Petrofac in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He had previously pleaded guilty to 14 counts of bribery and admitted to making corrupt payments between 2011 and 2018. A confiscation…

U.S. Designates Serbian, Salvadoran Gangs with Political Ties

Bribery, Corruption, Sanctions
The U.S. authorities announced Wednesday they have targeted 16 individuals and 24 entities suspected of corruption and serious human rights abuses. The ruling freezes U.S. property and money connected to those people and entities. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took the actions “pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s statement. “All property and interests in property of the persons above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to…

Trail of Venezuela’s Stolen Billions Leads to Carribbean Luxury Properties

Bribery, Corruption, Money Laundering
Key Findings A Venezuelan under investigation for laundering stolen oil money acquired a lucrative stake in a luxury hotel in Colombia through a company registered in Luxembourg. He and another woman under investigation, the girlfriend of former Venezuelan energy official Javier Alvarado Ochoa, sat on the board of directors of the company that owns the hotel. Three senior executives at an energy consultancy that received a $23 million contract from Venezuelan state power company Corpolec, which was led by Alvarado, also had stakes in the hotel. A Venezuelan expert in anti-money laundering said the setup was “unusual” and should be…

Pandora Papers Unveil Ex-Putin Aide, Indian Businessmen Behind Maldives Island Scandal Deals

Bribery, Corruption
A former deputy chief of staff for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as a wealthy Russian businessman with reputed organized crime ties, were secretly involved in the illegal leasing of a lagoon for tourist developments in the Maldives, newly leaked documents show. The documents reveal that a venture fund found to have been financed by Evgeny Novitsky — reputed to be a member or associate of Russia’s Solntsevo crime group — and run by former Putin aide Kirill Androsov was behind a 2015 deal to obtain the rights to develop a resort in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. Novitsky…

Money Laundering Probe Heartens Anti-Corruption Activists But Fails to Lift Pandora Papers’ Pall Over Seychelles

Bribery, Corruption
In handcuffs and a striped shirt, one of the Seychelles’ wealthiest and most powerful men shuffled toward prison after an unprecedented hearing last month. Mukesh Valabhji faces years behind bars for allegedly laundering $50 million and is among the first high-profile figures from the East African island nation’s efforts to cast off its reputation as a financial crime hotspot. Police arrested Valabhij last month when he alighted from his helicopter, on his return from a hotel he owns on the private island of Felicite, and later seized weapons at his home, according to local news reports. He was taken into…

Three Swiss Subsidiaries of the Oil-Related Group SBM Offshore Convicted of Corruption Offences

Bribery, Corruption
Bern, 23.11.2021 – The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has sentenced three Swiss subsidiaries of the multinational group SBM Offshore and ordered them to pay an amount of over CHF 7 million, including a fine of CHF 4.2 million. These three companies failed to take all the reasonable organisational measures required to prevent the bribery, of foreign public officials in Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria In a summary penalty order dated 18.11.2021, the OAG sentenced the Swiss companies SBM Holding Inc. SA, Single Buoy Moorings Inc. and SBM Production Contractors Inc. SA and ordered them to pay…

Swedish Bombardier Executive Denies Bribing Azeri Official

Bribery
A former manager at the railway equipment company Bombardier Transportation in Sweden denied on Tuesday charges of paying a US$100 million bribe to win a contract in Azerbaijan. He did not approve the deal and had no contacts with Azeri officials, the manager’s lawyer claimed at the trial in the Stockholm District Court. The former business area manager, Thomas Bimer, is charged with aggravated bribery when Bombardier in 2013 won a tender worth $340 million to upgrade the signalling system for a stretch of railway in Azerbaijan. Bombardier and Trans-Signal-Rabita (TSR), a local partner in Azerbaijan, colluded with an official…

Head of Mexico’s FIU forced to resign after $35,000 cash is found on private jet carrying guests to his wedding

Bribery, Corruption
The head of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has been forced to resign following a scandal related to his wedding in Guatemala. Santiago Nieto, long seen as a trusted ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his campaign to root out corruption, stepped down from the position on Monday. It came after Guatemalan authorities seized $35,000 in cash from a private jet carrying influential guests to Nieto’s wedding to Carla Humphrey, a counsellor with Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), in the city of Antigua. Wedding guest Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, the president of the prominent Mexican newspaper El Universal,…

Tory Donor Mohamed Amersi Involved in Telecoms Corruption Scandal

Bribery, Corruption
A prominent Tory donor who contributed to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals, a BBC investigation has discovered. Mohamed Amersi has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018. Leaked documents reveal how he worked on a series of controversial deals for a Swedish telecoms company that was later fined $965m (£700m) in a US prosecution. Mr Amersi denies any wrongdoing. The 61-year-old is a corporate lawyer who worked as a consultant for Telia between 2007 and 2013. Working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Guardian, BBC Panorama has obtained…

Credit Suisse Fined £147m and Undertakes to Forgive US$200m of Mozambican Debt

Bribery, Regulatory Fines
The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Credit Suisse over £147 million for serious financial crime due diligence failings related to loans worth over $1.3 billion, which the bank arranged for the Republic of Mozambique. These loans, and a bond exchange, were tainted by corruption. Credit Suisse has also agreed with the FCA to forgive US$200 million of debt owed by the Republic of Mozambique as a result of these tainted loans. Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said: ‘The FCA’s fine reflects the impact of these tainted transactions which included a debt crisis and…

Chinese Tech Giant Huawei had Secret Offshore Contracts With Men Linked to Serbian State Telecom Company

Bribery, Corruption
Amid a Chinese push to gain influence in Serbia, Huawei appears to have paid large sums to a former Serbian state telecom executive through an offshore shell company. Key Findings A former executive at state telecom company Telekom Srbija likely received over $1 million through an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands that had contracts with Chinese technology giant Huawei. The payments were linked to contracts with Huawei, some for consulting services that included introducing Huawei to government officials and arranging meetings for the Chinese company. In 2016, Huawei inked a major agreement with Telekom Srbija to overhaul Serbia’s…

Pandora Papers: Dirty Money, Bribery and the U.K. High Street

Bribery
Money from a corrupt company at the centre of a global bribery scandal has been invested in the UK High Street. Documents from the Pandora Papers leak reveal how £7.5m ($10.2m) in earnings from Unaoil – a business which paid bribes to secure oil and gas contracts – was funnelled offshore. The money from Ata Ahsani, the British Iranian founder of Unaoil, was paid into large funds used to invest in UK property including a cinema complex in Sunderland and a business park near Hull. Ata Ahsani’s lawyers say he has not been convicted of anything and there is no…

Serious Fraud Office Probing O2 Bribery Allegations

Bribery
Telecoms giant O2 is being investigated Serious Fraud Office reportedly over allegations of bribery involving the company’s executives. The company revealed in a financial statement that it is cooperating with the SFO, following its merger with Virgin Media. O2’s recent £31bn merger with Virgin Media makes the new company the UK’s largest network, ahead of BT and EE. The investigation disclosure, first revealed by the Sunday Telegraph, comes after years of rumours that the firm is being investigated by the watchdog. Industry insiders told the Telegraph that the probe concerns allegations that former O2 executives were involved with the payment…

U.K. Fraud Watchdog Digs into Alleged Mine Bribes in D.R. Congo

Bribery, Corruption
The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating alleged corruption in mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where foreign companies purportedly bribed officials up to US$360 million between 2006 and 2011. U.K. investigators first referred the case to Swiss authorities in 2014, and again in 2019 on the back of related claims of money laundering. The March 30 Swiss Federal Criminal Court decision dismissing the appeal made by one of the companies in question, which reveals details about the case for the first time, was only recently made public. The judgment identifies an anonymous individual “C” as…

The Bribery Act – 10 years on

Bribery, Legislation
When the Bribery Act 2010 was introduced it was feted and condemned in equal measure. While supporters claimed it would be the international gold standard for bribery legislation, critics called it draconian. A decade later it seems that, at least in terms of prosecutions, the act falls far short of Draco’s standards. The Crown Prosecution Service and Serious Fraud Office have prosecuted a handful of individuals, and use of the corporate offence under section 7 (failure to prevent bribery) has almost exclusively been confined to deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), rather than convictions. However, before declaring the act a failure, one…

Wood Group settles Amec bribery case in $177 million agreement

Bribery, Prosecutions
John Wood Group Plc said it agreed to pay $177 million to settle a UK-led bribery and corruption probe into a British engineering firm it acquired in 2017. The settlement is part of a so-called deferred prosecution agreement with the Serious Fraud Office and the U.S. Department of Justice concerning Amec Foster Wheeler Plc, Wood Group said in a statement Friday. The UK agreement is still subject to court approval. As part of the deal, the company can avoid prosecution for three years if it cooperates in the continuing bribery probe. Wood Group’s payment is one of the largest ever…

A significant High Court judgment that brokers took bribes to push allegedly ruinous loans to farmers

Bribery, Fraud
A significant High Court judgment that brokers took bribes to push allegedly ruinous loans to farmers has fuelled campaigners’ demands for a change in approach to financial crime in our region. Spates of evictions and land-grabs scarred Britain as it exited the 2008 financial crash. A crisis of ‘bad’ debts, repossessions, cases of homelessness and even suicides engulfed farmers, builders, property developers and small-scale entrepreneurs of all types across the UK and Ireland. Some banks were later found to be asset-stripping borrowers, ostensibly to ensure their own survival. Not all the alleged debtors gave up though, with some turning detective…

Two Individuals Indicted for Money Laundering Related to Odebrecht Bribery and Fraud Scheme

Bribery, Fraud, Prosecutions
Bank Executives Charged with Conspiring to Launder Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Through U.S. Financial System Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, an indictment was unsealed charging Peter Weinzierl and Alexander Waldstein, both citizens of Austria, for their roles in a scheme to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Odebrecht S.A. (Odebrecht), a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate, in order to pay bribes around the world and defraud the Brazilian government. Weinzierl was arrested earlier today in the United Kingdom pursuant to a provisional arrest request from the United States. Waldstein remains…

Fourth oil executive sentenced for paying bribes to win a multi-million pound contract in post-occupation Iraq

Bribery, Prosecutions
Paul Bond has today been sentenced to three and half years’ imprisonment for conspiring with others to bribe Iraqi public officials to secure lucrative oil contracts in post-occupation Iraq. Earlier this week, Bond, a former senior sales manager at SBM Offshore (SBM), was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments following a retrial of his case at Southwark Crown Court. This was the fourth conviction the SFO secured in its wide-scale Unaoil bribery investigation, which uncovered the payment of over $17m worth of bribes to secure $1.7bn worth of contracts for Unaoil and its clients. In…

Deutsche Bank Reaches $100 Million Deferred-Prosecution Deal

Bribery
Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay more than $130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manipulated the market for precious-metals futures through a trading tactic known as spoofing. The Frankfurt-based bank agreed to a deal in which it won’t be prosecuted as long as it doesn’t engage in the practices again for more than three years, and wasn’t required to plead guilty to the charges. The case was brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, and Washington who secured a $920 million fine against JPMorgan Chase & Co. last year, the largest…

2020: We cast a cold eye over the 15 major highlights of a financial crime year in review

Bribery, Corruption, Money Laundering
As we near the end of one of the toughest years for people and businesses in decades, we take a look back at some of the biggest happenings in the world of financial crime, corruption and the laws in place to stop it. 1. Cryptocurrency: the way of the future2020 has seen governments across the world tighten their grip on virtual assets. They were once seen as an easy pathway to launder money, but this year, the trend accelerates away from that. This month, France announced sweeping new KYC measures for all crypto companies operating within its borders. Registration will…