A U.K. court on Monday fined Petrofac Ltd. £77 million (equivalent to $104.3 million) for failing to prevent senior executives from using agents to bribe public officials for oil contracts in the Middle East.
The fine follows a Friday hearing at the Southwark Crown Court in London where the St. Helier, Jersey-based provider of services to the energy industry pleaded guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017 in connection with contracts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
...A U.K. court on Monday fined Petrofac Ltd. £77 million (equivalent to $104.3 million) for failing to prevent senior executives from using agents to bribe public officials for oil contracts in the Middle East.
The fine follows a Friday hearing at the Southwark Crown Court in London where the St. Helier, Jersey-based provider of services to the energy industry pleaded guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017 in connection with contracts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“The corruption in this case is systemic, serious and grave,” Judge Deborah Taylor said in sentencing remarks. “Petrofac’s systems intended to prevent corruption were based in London and were wholly inadequate to control practices operated from Sharjah,” the judge said, referring to a Petrofac branch in the United Arab Emirates.
Petrofac had said Friday that it might be fined as much as $240 million, before any reductions. The fine imposed Monday, which was less than half of the maximum penalty expected by Petrofac, came in recognition of its corporate reforms by the court and the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, the company said.
“This draws a line under a regrettable period of our history. We have taken responsibility, reformed and learned from these past mistakes,” Petrofac Chairman René Médori said in a statement.
U.K. authorities have been investigating Petrofac for four years. David Lufkin, Petrofac’s former global head of sales, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of bribery in 2019 and three counts of bribery in January 2021.
Mr. Lufkin, who prosecutors said cooperated with the SFO’s investigation, on Friday received a two-year prison sentence suspended for 18 months, meaning he won’t have to serve prison time if he doesn’t commit further offenses during those 18 months.
“Mr. Lufkin would like to thank the court for recognising that for the last four years he has done all that he could to redress the mistakes that he has made in the past,” said his lawyer, Kevin Roberts.
Shares in Petrofac closed up 4.6% at 182 pence on the London Stock Exchange.
Petrofac executives paid approximately $44 million in bribes for contracts valued at around $3.5 billion, according to the SFO. A key feature of the case was the complex methods that executives used to hide the bribes, including the use of fake contracts and multiple intermediaries, prosecutors said.
Judge Taylor on Monday said that despite the serious nature of the case, she would impose a fine that wouldn’t financially cripple the company.
“I do not consider that it is necessary for the company to be put out of business and therefore, a fine must be imposed which, whilst being painful for the company, is one which it can pay,” the judge said.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com
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