Marubeni , the Japanese conglomerate, has paid $54.6 million to settle a bribery and corruption case related to liquefied natural gas in Nigeria, according to the US Department of Justice.
The DOJ alleges that the company was hired as an agent by TSKJ, a four-company joint venture, to secure contracts for building LNG facilities in Nigeria, and that Marubeni bribed Nigerian officials to get the contracts. The overall cost of the LNG facilities, for which TSKJ won four contracts between 1995 and 2004, was estimated at US$6 billion.
Strictly speaking, Marubeni was allegedly hired for bribing lower-level Nigerian officials; Jeffrey Tesler, a UK solicitor, was employed by the joint venture to bribe more senior officials. Marubeni received US$51 million whilst Tesler, who operated using a Gibraltar-based investment vehicle, received US$132 million – the money was used to bribe officials and as payment for facilitating the bribes.
The investigation, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has already snared many of the other companies and individuals involved. Tesler agreed to forfeit US$148 million after pleading guilty in March last year, and the joint venture partners (Kellogg Brown & Root, Technip, Snamprogetti and JCG Corporation) have paid a combined total of US$1.1 billion in fines over the past few years.
Under the deferred-prosecution agreement filed by the DOJ, Marubeni is bound to retain a consultant for two years to review and assess its compliance programme and to cooperate with further investigative work by the US authorities. Provided that Marubeni abides by the agreement, the DOJ will drop the criminal charges after two years.
Sources: AFP, Wall Street Journal
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