Corrupt agents cost energy firm £103m

AN ENERGY company has agreed to pay a total of £103m over its use of corrupt agents in the oil and gas sector to secure contracts.

Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited has entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which was approved by Lord Justice Edis.

Following a brief hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, the details of the DPA and the reasons the court approved the deal were made public. The DPA only relates to the potential criminal liability of Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited and does not address whether liability of any sort attaches to any employee, agent, former employee or former agent of Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited.

The SFO said the offences took place around the world between 1996 and 2014, before Amec acquired Foster Wheeler in November 2014 and prior to the combined firm’s acquisition by John Wood Group in October 2017.

By entering into the DPA, Amec Foster Wheeler Energy has taken responsibility for 10 offences of corruption in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India and Brazil by the legacy Foster Wheeler business, the SFO said.

As part of the agreement, the company will pay the SFO’s costs of £3.4m plus compensation to “the Nigerian victims in this case” of just over £200,000.

The SFO said the DPA concludes its investigation “into suspected bribery and corruption within the legacy Foster Wheeler and Amec Foster Wheeler businesses as far as the corporate entities are concerned”.

But it added that its “investigation into the conduct of individual suspects continues”.

The court heard that the SFO is expecting to “reach charging decisions in the next three months”.