A third man has been convicted after a trial was told US$6 million in bribes were paid to Iraqi officials to secure contracts worth US$800 million in Iraq’s oil industry between 2005 and 2011.
Englishman Paul Bond, 69, was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments following a retrial at Southwark Crown Court.
Breaking: Ex-SBM Offshore executive Paul Bond convicted in UK Serious Fraud Office bribery case. His conviction today marks the end of the SFO's trial against #Unaoil-linked executives. @UKSFO
— Annie Robertson (@annierobertsn) February 24, 2021
Last year, another jury was unable to reach a verdict in his case but convicted Stephen Whiteley, 65, and Ziad Akle, 45, of conspiracy to give corrupt payments to Oday Al Quoraishi, an official in Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company.
Whiteley and Akle worked for Monaco-based Unaoil while Bond worked for one of Unaoil’s clients, a Dutch company, SBM Offshore.
Akle was jailed for five years in July 2020 and Whiteley for three years. Bond will be sentenced later on Friday, 26 February.
Unaoil’s former Iraq partner, Basil Al Jarah, pleaded guilty and was jailed for three years and four months.
Fourth executive, Paul Bond, convicted of bribery in post-occupation Iraq.
— Serious Fraud Office (@UKSFO) February 24, 2021
Former senior sales manager conspired to bribe public officials in order to secure lucrative oil contracts in the years following the overthrow of Saddam Hussain in 2003.https://t.co/Ti39bjCNWW pic.twitter.com/uayOmFbYoD
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, which brought the case, said Bond and the others "took advantage of a government reeling from dictatorship and occupation…(to) line their own pockets."
SFO director Lisa Osofsky said: "These projects were crucial to the reconstruction of the Iraqi oil sector and the future prosperity of the fledgling state’s economy. Bond and his co-conspirators knew this and yet corrupted the tender process for financial gain."
She said: “We are proud to have ensured the four men will be punished for their pernicious crimes, and will continue to relentlessly pursue such cases across the globe.”
During the first trial Osofsky was herself the subject to allegations of impropriety over her dealings with a US-based agent representing Unaoil's owners, the Ahsani family.
Akle attempted to get the case thrown out in January 2020, arguing Osofsky repeatedly made “improper” contact with former US prosecutor David Tinsley, founder of private spying agency 5 Stones Intelligence, which represented the Ahsanis.
According to evidence read in court by Akle's lawyer, Tinsley communicated via text messages with Osofsky and offered to help the SFO secure a guilty plea from Akle and his colleague Basil Al-Jarah.
After Bond’s conviction on Wednesday, 24 February, the SFO thanked the Australian Federal Police, the French Parquet National Financier, the Police Judiciaires of the Principality of Monaco, the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service of the Netherlands, the United States Department of Justice, Greater Manchester Police, the Metropolitan Police, the National Crime Agency and West Mercia Constabulary for their assistance.
