SBM Offshore in US bribery settlement

SBM Offshore announced on Thursday that it has agreed to pay USD 238 million to settle bribery charges in the USA linked to corruption in Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Iraq and Kazakhstan.

“The DoJ [US Department of Justice] recognised that the company engaged in remedial measures since 2012 – including terminating employees who were involved in the criminal conduct and terminating numerous agency relationships with third parties – and the company’s commitment to its compliance programme and internal controls,” SBM Offshore said in a statement. “Based on the company’s remediation and the state of its compliance programme, the DoJ determined that an independent compliance monitor was unnecessary.”

The settlement came weeks after Anthony Mace, SBM Offshore’s former CEO between 2008 and 2011, pleaded guilty to charges that he attempted to bribe officials at Petrobras, <a href=’https://staging.theenergyyear.com/companies-institutions/sonangol/’>Sonangol and GEPetrol.

The scheme began in 1996, Reuters reported. In 2014, SBM settled a probe in the Netherlands about its dealings in Angola, Brazil and Equatorial Guinea for USD 240 million.