Oil service giant pays 238 million USD in criminal penalties for foreign bribes

HOUSTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- A Netherlands-based company that makes offshore oil drilling equipment and its U.S. subsidiary agreed to pay 238 million U.S. dollars in criminal penalties for the role the companies played in bribing foreign officials, local newspaper reported Thursday.

SBM Offshore N.V. and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Houston-based SBM Offshore USA, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the U.S. federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a plea deal that resolves the lingering criminal charges against the energy services companies.

The companies had set aside the 238 million dollars to pay for "improper sales practices," according to a company press release, after the U.S. Justice Department reopened an earlier investigation into bribery allegations.

The bribery scheme began in 1996 and continued until at least 2012, according to admissions by the companies and court records, the Justice Department said.

The SBM paid more than 180 million dollars in commissions to intermediaries, knowing that some of the money would go toward bribing foreign officials in Brazil, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Iraq, so the SBM could obtain or retain business with oil companies owned by those governments.

The Justice Department said that the SBM acknowledged that it obtained at least 2.8 billion dollars in work from the oil companies owned by the five governments. Enditem