US Company Pleads Guilty, Fined for FCPA Violations
A U.S. asphalt company agreed to pay a criminal fine of $16.6 million after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit anti-bribery violations, the Justice Department said Sept. 22. The agency said Sargeant Marine Inc. conspired to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when it schemed to bribe foreign officials in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador to obtain asphalt contracts.
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Between 2010 and 2018, the Florida-based company paid “millions” of dollars in bribes to sell asphalt to foreign state-owned oil companies, the Justice Department said. The bribes included payments to Brazilian government officials, including a minister in Brazil’s government, a member of the Brazilian congress and senior executives at Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.-Petrobras, the state-owned petroleum company. Sargeant Marine also bribed four officials at Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s state-owned energy company, and an official at Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, EP Petroecuador.
Sargeant Marine entered into fake consulting agreements with “bribe intermediaries” to hide the payments and used foreign shell companies to pay the bribes. When the company bribed PdVSA officials, it used code names, referring to the recipients as “Oiltrader,” “Tony” and “Tony 2” in emails and texts, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department said it recently unsealed indictments against five people who played a major role in the scheme, all of whom pleaded guilty: a senior executive at Sargeant Marine, one of the company’s traders, two consultants who acted as bribe intermediaries and a former PdVSA official. The Justice Department said a sixth person pleaded guilty in 2017 for involvement in the bribes to Brazilian officials, and a separate indictment was unsealed earlier this month charging another former PdVSA official for his role in the scheme.