One of SBM Offshore's vessels, photo courtesy of Marin Teknikk

Ex-SBM execs plead guilty in bribe case

HOUSTON, November 10, 2017 – Two former SBM Offshore employees pled guilty to conspiracy for their role in bribing foreign government officials, according to a US Department of Justice statement released on Thursday.

Anthony Mace, who served as CEO from 2008 to 2011, admitted to approving payments for bribes to officials in a scheme that involved Petrobras, <a href='https://theenergyyear.com/companies-institutions/sonangol/’>Sonangol and GEPetrol. Robert Zubiate, a sales and marketing executive, admitted to using a third-party agent to pay bribes to Petrobras officials. Sentencing is scheduled for Q1 2018.

“Mace admitted that he maintained a spreadsheet reflecting payments to five individuals and that even though he was aware there was a high risk, those individuals were Equatorial Guinean officials or persons receiving money on behalf or at the direction of those officials, he nevertheless authorised Oil Services Company [SBM Offshore] to make over USD 16 million in payments to those individuals,” the statement read.

“Mace further admitted that he continued a practice that was instituted before he became CEO by splitting payments to Oil Services Company’s Brazilian intermediary, that is, paying a portion of the intermediary’s commission to an account in Brazil and another portion of the agent’s commission to accounts in Switzerland held in the name of shell companies. Mace admitted that he deliberately avoided learning that the ultimate recipients of the payments that he authorised to the shell companies were Petrobras officials.”

Earlier in the week, the company set aside USD 238 million to cover costs from the US inquiry and said a Brazilian investigation had not been resolved. In 2015, Brazil told SBM to either pay a USD 253-million bribery settlement or face losing Petrobras as a client. In November 2014, SBM reached a USD 240-million settlement with Dutch prosecutors regarding bribery in Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Brazil between 2007 and 2011.