French shipowner and contractor TechnipFMC has agreed to pay fines of over $296m to resolve foreign bribery charges with authorities in the US and Brazil.
The charges arose out of two independent bribery schemes: a scheme to pay bribes to Brazilian officials and a scheme to pay bribes to officials in Iraq.
In addition, TechnipFMC’s former consultant pleaded guilty on Tuesday in connection with the resolution, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said. He is awaiting sentencing.
This is the second time TechnipFMC has been heavily fined over bribes. In 2010 it entered into a $240m resolution with the DoJ over bribes paid in Nigeria.
According to admissions and court documents, over a 10-year period between 2003 and 2013, TechnipFMC conspired with others, including Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine and their former consultant, to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
It did this by making more than $69m in corrupt payments and “commission payments” to the consultant, companies associated with the consultant and others, who passed along portions of these payments as bribes to Brazialin government officials who were employees at the Petrobras, in order to secure “improper business advantages” and obtaining and retaining business with the state-owned Brazilian oil major.
In addition, TechnipFMC is said to have made more than $6m in corrupt payments to the Workers’ Party in Brazil and Workers’ party officials in furtherance of the bribery scheme.
The DoJ said that admissions and court documents also establish that for at least five years, the company conspired to violate the FCPA by paying bribes to at least seven government officials in Iraq.
This included officials at the Ministry of Oil, the South Oil Company and the Missan Oil Company, through a Monaco-based intermediary company, in order to win secure improper business advantages and to influence those foreign officials to obtain and retain business in Iraq.
In the resolutions with the DoJ, TechnipFMC is said to have received credit for its “substantial cooperation” with the department’s investigation and for taking “extensive remedial measures”.
Accordingly, the criminal fine reflects a 25% reduction off the applicable US sentencing guidelines fine for the company’s full cooperation and remediation.
As part of the deferred prosecution agreement, TechnipFMC committed to implementing rigorous internal controls and to cooperate fully with the Department’s ongoing investigation.
