The
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other
Anti-Bribery laws prohibit bribes by multinational
corporations to foreign officials
to obtain lucrative contracts. Confidential Bribe Whistleblowers that
properly report these illegal contract bribes, kickbacks, and
other corrupt practices may recover large rewards
for exposing corrupt practices committed by
multinational corporation. If you are aware of significant
contract bribes, illegal kickbacks or other corrupt
practices by foreign companies and/or multinational
corporations, please feel free to
contact
Brazilian Illegal Bribe and Kickback Whistleblower
Reward Lawyer
Jason Coomer via
e-mail message or use our
submission form to inquire about a potential
Brazilian
Illegal Contract Bribe Whistleblower Reward Bounty Action.
Brazil is a Regional Economic Power in South America
that
is Becoming an Emerging World Economic Power and
is Attracting Foreign Direct Investments from Many
Foreign Multinational Corporations
Brazil is the fifth largest country
in the world by geographical area and population.
In 2011, Brazil became the sixth largest economy by
surpassing the United Kingdom. One of the
reasons for the growth of the Brazilian economy is that
over the last several years the Brazilian government has
put in place several policies to encourage foreign
investment into Brazilian economy. These policies
have encouraged
international commerce and increased Brazil's presence in
the global economy. Through these policies, the
Brazilian economy has expanded rapidly with large
amounts of foreign direct investments coming into the
country. Foreign companies are now moving into Brazil
at a record pace, and many Brazilian companies are expanding
internationally. For foreign investors and large
multinational corporations, the battle to invest into
the Brazilian economy and potentially reap huge rewards
has become extremely competitive. This fierce
competition combined with the Brazilian history of
government corruption will be a test for many new
anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws that have been
passed around the world and are being considered in
Brazil.
Brazilian Government Official Corruption, Brazilian
Public Official Bribes, Brazilian Multinational Corporation Bribes,
and
Brazil Government Official
Illegal Kickbacks Result in Political Action to Adopt
Anti-Bribery Laws and Policies Similar to the US Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act, UK Anti-Bribery Act, and other
Global Trade Anti-Corruption Policies
With the rapidly expanding Brazilian
economy, foreign direct investments into Brazil, and
Brazilian companies expanding into other countriess have
come allegations of government official bribes,
government agent kickbacks, fraud, embezzlement, and
other forms of corruption. Included in these Brazilian
government corruption scandals are several government
officials that are being forced to resign, while other
government officials in President Dilma Rousseff’s
cabinet are under investigation for government
corruption. In the aftermath of these corruption
scandals, the Brazilian Congress is in the process of
enacting new law that would dramatically strengthen the
Brazilian foreign bribery laws. The foreign
anti-bribery law is part of a global trend where
governments around the world are cracking down on large
corrupt multinational corporations that are offering
bribes and kickbacks to government officials in order to
obtain large government contracts, avoid health & safety
regulations, bypass environmental laws, and exploit
populations in foreign countries.
The Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been leading the
way in fighting bribery of government officials.
The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention which Brazil has
adopted established legally binding standards to
criminalize bribery of foreign public officials in
international business transactions. In addition to
Brazil the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has been adopted
by 34
OECD member countries and three other non-member
countries - Argentina, Bulgaria, and South Africa.
Anti-bribery and corruption laws have also recently been
expanded in the United States through the Dodd Frank
Bounty Action and U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”)
as well as the UK Bribery Act.
It is thought that these Brazilian
anti-bribery and anti-corruption reforms will improve
Brazil's ability to attract legitimate foreign
investment as well as improve Brazilian multinational
corporations' ability to expand throughout South
America, Latin America, and the world. As
Brazilian-based multinationals continue to expand
internationally, they will want to ensure that they are
protected from corrupt practices by other large
multinational corporations and are given a fair chance
to legally expand their businesses into international
markets.
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A key Brazilian industry is the
petrochemical industry. With large natural
reserves of oil and gas combined with foreign direct
investments of technology, Brazil will soon pass China
and the United Arab Emirates to become world's fifth
largest oil producing nation, only behind Russia, Saudi
Arabia, the USA and Iran. Much of Brazil's oil and
gas production comes from offshore drilling in deep
water reserves. Included in these deep water oil
and gas reserves is the Santos Basin, which is located
in the south Atlantic Ocean. The Santos Basin is
approximately 300 kilometers south east of Sao Paulo and
is one of the world's largest oil prospects. The
Santos Basin is situated in deepwater and includes two
of the largest oil fields to be discovered in recent
times: Tupi (2006) and Jupiter (2008). The Santos
Basin also has the Carioca/Sugar Loaf field which could
contain as many as 40 billion barrels.
Because of the location of Brazil's
vast oil and gas reserves, Brazil is seeking and
developing deep water drilling technologies including
Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO)
technology. The FPSO units are used in remote and
deepwater zones where it is neither practical nor
cost-effective to lay seabed pipelines from a well to an
onshore terminal. Brazil currently has more than
25 FPSOs in operation off the east coast of Brazil and
is setting up a domestic FPSO industry.
The production of the Tupi and
Jupiter fields combined with the development of
production in the Sugar Loaf field should enable the Brazilian Oil
Industry to bring in vast amounts of foreign capital into
Brazil and allow Brazil to keep advancing its drilling
technologies and developing its petrochemical
infrastructure. The rigs, platforms and tankers
that will service and harvest Brazil's reserves in the
coming years will probably be constructed using local
suppliers, manpower and facilities instead of
outsourcing to third party companies that do not feed
directly into the local/national economy, however, deep
technology and capital from around the world will be
needed to develop the infrastructure and train the work
force.
Full exploitation of these vast oil
riches will create huge opportunities for Brazil and
will help Brazil to become a regional economic power.
In fact, it is widely believed that Brazil's oil and gas
reserves will catapult the country from an
agriculturally-based emerging third world economy to a
first world economic power in a matter of years.
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The Brazilian energy industry is
dominated by the Brazilian multinational energy company,
Petrobras. Petrobras is the forth largest company
in the world measured by market capitalization. It
is also Brazil's semi-public oil company that is public
and private hybrid. As Brazil's public oil company,
Petrobras has a goal of directing over 50% of its future oil
and gas contracts to local Brazilian companies.
This protectionist economic policy is designed to help
develop the Brazilian petrochemical industry and to
limit the influence of foreign multinational oil
companies on the Brazilian economy. However,
avoiding corruption including Santos Basin lease bribes, Petrobras employee bribes, Brazilian government official
bribes, Petrobras oil lease bribes, and other potential Petrobras
corruption
may prove difficult as the historical culture of
Brazilian business and Brazilian government includes
substantial corruption.
Petrobras has pledged a $224 billon
investment in the Santos Basin through 2014 which should
be able to bring in advanced technology and industry
from large foreign multinational energy companies.
This large amount of investment capital combined with
the vast rich Brazilian oil and gas reserves, will bring
in fierce competition for these large Brazilian
contracts, Brazilian offshore drilling leases, and
Brazilian leases. This fierce competition over
these huge riches will definitely test the Brazilian
government as to if corrupt practices will continue to
be common in Brazil or will new anti-bribery laws,
whistleblowers, informants, honest Petrobras employees,
honest government officials, and honest Petrobras
officers be able to manage these resources for the good
of the Brazilian economy and Brazilian people?
As the sole operator in the Santos
fields, Petrobras will significant power in the
development of Brazil's petrochemical industry and may
be the target of bribes and corruption. Many of
the large multinational oil companies including BP are
already competing to drill in the rich Bazilian oil and
gas fields. BP has already acquired 10 exploration
sites in Brazil. Most of these explorations sites
are in the Campos basin which according to the Brazilian
state oil company Petrobas may have 55 separate oil
reserves. The BG Group has also entered into a
contract with Petrobras and Petrogal where they have a
25% interest in the Tupi field. Current estimates
of the Tupi field are that it contains between five and
eight billion barrels of oil and natural gas. The
BG Group also has a 30 percent interest with Petrobras
and Repsol in other areas of the Santos Basin and other
large contracts with with Petrobras. In the
future, the BG Group and Petrobras expect to award
contracts to as many as three of the large multinational
energy conglomerates.
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Oil Company Employee Confidential Whistleblower Lawyers,
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Company Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
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Program Lawyers, Brazil Illegal Contract Bribe Bounty
Lawyers and Anonymous Multinational Oil Company Whistleblower Lawyers
Corrupt Foreign Multinational Oil Companies,
Multinational Construction Companies, and Multinational
Energy Companies that pay illegal
kickbacks and bribes to Brazilian government officials and former
Brazilian government officials in exchange for
Brazilian drilling contracts, Brazilian pipeline contracts,
Brazilian oil leases,
Brazilian offshore drilling contracts,
Brazilian infrastructure contracts, and other Brazilian large building projects can
be brought to justice and made to pay large penalties
under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The
whistleblowers that bring these corporations to justice
may be able to collect large economic rewards under the
Securities Exchange Act (SEC Whistleblower Bounty
Actions) and the
Commodity Exchange Act (CFTC Whisteblower Bounty
Actions).
The Brazilian Oil Company Illegal Bribe
Whistleblower or Brazilian Petroleum Company Illegal Kickback
Whistleblower may be entitled to not only the amount of
the illegal bribe or kickback, but the benefit of the
illegal bribe or kickback. In cases where $100,000.00
bribe is made to obtain a $900 million pipeline, the
Brazilian Petroleum Illegal Bribe Whistleblower or
Brazilian Oil
Company Illegal Kickback Whistleblower may be entitled
to 10 to 30% of the $900,000,000.00 and the $100,000.00
translating into a $90 million to $300 million award.
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South America Bribe Whistleblower Reward Lawyer,
United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violation
Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Argentina Government
Official Bribe Whistleblower Incentive Lawyer, &
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Under
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and SEC
Whistleblower Incentive Program, whistleblowers with
original and specialized knowledge and evidence of
corporate bribes of government officials and illegal kickbacks
to government agents are eligible to
recover large economic awards. By gathering this
evidence and going through a lawyer, these
whistleblowers can protect their identity through the
process and potentially collect large rewards of 10% to
30% of the monetary sanctions including disgorged funds. If you are aware of an illegal bribe or
illegal kickback that was used to secure a large
contract, please feel free to
contact
Multinational Corporation Illegal Kickback and Bribe Whistleblower Lawyer
Jason Coomer via
e-mail message or use our
submission form about a potential SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program
Action or other Whistleblower Bounty Action.
Below are press releases from
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC and
Department of Justice regarding large bribe schemes and
illegal kickbacks used in South America. These
multinational corporate bribes in South America including
Brazil. In these cases we see that
large multinational corporations are using bribes and
kickbacks to government officials to secure large
contracts. In these cases, the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission is able to impose large fines for FCPA violations. If similar fines are made as a
result of a whistleblower action could result in large
economic rewards to the whistleblower.
SEC Charges Seven Oil Services and Freight
Forwarding Companies for Widespread Bribery of Customs
Officials FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2010-214
Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2010 — The
Securities and Exchange Commission today announced
sweeping settlements with global freight forwarding
company Panalpina, Inc. and six other companies in the
oil services industry that violated the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act (FCPA) by paying millions of dollars in
bribes to foreign officials to receive preferential
treatment and improper benefits during the customs
process. SEC Complaints:
Panalpina, Inc. Pride International,
Inc. Tidewater Inc. Transocean, Inc. GlobalSantaFe Corp.
Noble Corporation
SEC Administrative Proceeding:
Royal Dutch Shell plc
The SEC alleges that the companies
bribed customs officials in more than 10 countries in
exchange for such perks as avoiding applicable customs
duties on imported goods, expediting the importation of
goods and equipment, extending drilling contracts, and
lowering tax assessments. The companies also paid bribes
to obtain false documentation related to temporary
import permits for oil drilling rigs, and enable the
release of drilling rigs and other equipment from
customs officials.
The SEC's cases were coordinated with
the U.S. Department of Justice's Fraud Section, and the
sanctions to be paid by the companies under the
settlements total $236.5 million. This is the first
sweep of a particular industrial sector in order to
crack down on public companies and third parties who are
paying bribes abroad.
"Bribing customs officials is not
only illegal but also bad for business, as the
coordinated efforts of law enforcement increase the risk
of detection every day," said Robert Khuzami, Director
of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "These companies
resorted to lucrative arrangements behind the scenes to
obtain phony paperwork and special favors, and they
landed themselves squarely in investigators'
crosshairs."
Cheryl J. Scarboro, Chief of the
SEC's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, added, "This
investigation was the culmination of proactive work by
the SEC and DOJ after detecting widespread corruption in
the oil services industry. The FCPA Unit will continue
to focus on industry-wide sweeps, and no industry is
immune from investigation."
Without admitting or denying the
allegations, the companies agreed to settle the SEC's
charges against them by paying approximately $80 million
in disgorgement, interest, and penalties. The companies
agreed to pay fines of $156.5 million to settle the
criminal proceedings with DOJ.
SEC charges against six companies
were filed in federal court, and one company was charged
in an SEC administrative proceeding. Among the SEC's
allegations:
Panalpina, Inc. — A U.S. subsidiary
of the Swiss freight forwarding giant Panalpina World
Transport (Holding) Ltd. (PWT), Panalpina is charged
with paying bribes to customs officials around the world
from 2002 to 2007 on behalf of its customers, some of
whom are included in these settlements. Panalpina bribed
customs officials in Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, Russia and
Kazakhstan to enable importation of goods into those
countries and the provision of logistics services. The
bribes were often authorized by Panalpina's customers
and then inaccurately described in customer invoices as
"local processing" or "special intervention" or "special
handling" fees.
Panalpina agreed to an injunction and
will pay disgorgement of $11,329,369 in the SEC case.
PWT and Panalpina agreed to pay a criminal fine of
$70.56 million.
Pride International, Inc. — One of
the world's largest offshore drilling companies, Pride
and its subsidiaries paid approximately $2 million to
foreign officials in eight countries from 2001 to 2006
in exchange for various benefits related to oil
services. For example, Pride's former country manager in
Venezuela authorized bribes of approximately $384,000 to
a state-owned oil company official to secure extensions
of drilling contracts, and a French subsidiary of Pride
paid $500,000 in bribes intended for a judge to
influence customs litigation relating to the importation
of a drilling rig.
Pride agreed to an injunction and
will pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of
$23,529,718 in the SEC case. Pride and subsidiary Pride
Forasol agreed to pay a criminal fine of $32.625
million.
Tidewater Inc. — The New
Orleans-based shipping company through a subsidiary
reimbursed approximately $1.6 million to its customs
broker in Nigeria from 2002 to 2007 so the broker could
make improper payments to Nigerian customs officials and
induce them to disregard regulatory requirements related
to the importation of Tidewater's vessels.
Tidewater agreed to an injunction and
will pay $8,104,362 in disgorgement and a $217,000
penalty. Tidewater Marine International agreed to pay a
criminal fine of $7.35 million.
Transocean, Inc. — An international
provider of offshore drilling services to oil companies
throughout the world, Transocean made illicit payments
from at least 2002 to 2007 through its customs agents to
Nigerian government officials in order to extend the
temporary importation status of its drilling rigs.
Bribes also were paid to obtain false paperwork
associated with its drilling rigs and obtain inward
clearance authorizations for its rigs and a bond
registration.
Transocean agreed to an injunction
and will pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of
$7,265,080. Transocean Ltd. and Transocean Inc. agreed
to pay a criminal fine of $13.44 million.
GlobalSantaFe Corp. (GSF) A provider
of offshore drilling services GSF made illegal payments
through its customs brokers from approximately 2002 to
2007 to officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS)
to secure documentation showing that its rigs had left
Nigerian waters. The rigs had in fact never moved. GSF
also made other payments to government officials in
Gabon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
GSF agreed to an injunction and will
pay disgorgement of $3,758,165 and a penalty of $2.1
million.
Noble Corporation — An offshore
drilling services provider, Noble authorized payments by
its Nigerian subsidiary to its custom agent to obtain
false documentation from NCS officials to show export
and re-import of its drilling rigs into Nigerian waters.
From 2003 to 2007, Noble obtained eight temporary import
permits with false documentation.
Noble agreed to an injunction and
will pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of
$5,576,998. Noble agreed to pay a criminal fine of $2.59
million.
Royal Dutch Shell plc — An oil
company headquartered in the Netherlands, Shell and its
indirect subsidiary called Shell International
Exploration and Production, Inc. (SIEP) violated the
FCPA by using a customs broker to make payments from
2002 to 2005 to officials at NCS to obtain preferential
customs treatment related to a project in Nigeria.
SIEP and Shell agreed to a
cease-and-desist order and will pay disgorgement and
prejudgment interest of $18,149,459. Shell Nigerian
Exploration and Production Co. Ltd. will pay a criminal
fine of $30 million.
* * *
The SEC's investigations were
conducted by Jason Rose, Michael King, Tracy L. Price,
Denise Hansberry, Laura Josephs, Linda Moran, Amy
Friedman, Mathew Hefferan, Moira T. Roberts, Sharan K.S.
Custer, Ernesto Palacios and Chedly Dumornay. The
Commission acknowledges the assistance of the Department
of Justice's Criminal Division-Fraud Section and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
applies to “issuers” (U.S. and foreign companies listed
on U.S. securities exchanges and their employees);
“domestic concerns,” which run the gamut of business
entities organized under U.S. laws or with their
principal place of business in the United States; the
officers, directors, employees, and agents of those U.S.
business entities (irrespective of nationality); U.S.
citizens; U.S. resident aliens; “any person,” including
all foreign persons, who commit an act in furtherance of
a foreign bribe while in the United States, and U.S.
businesses and nationals acting abroad. A Company must
require all of its affiliated companies and all of their
employees to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
Prohibitions
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
(FCPA) prohibits the offer or making of payments or
giving anything of value, either directly or indirectly,
to any foreign official, political party or political
candidate, or public international organization to
obtain or maintain business when the offer, payment or
gift is intended to influence a desired action; induce
an act in violation of a lawful duty; cause a person to
refrain from acting in violation of a lawful duty;
secure any improper advantage; or influence the decision
of a government or instrumentality. These
prohibitions preclude payments were unlawful under the
laws of the country in which payment was made; payments
that are not legitimate expenses directly related to the
promotion, demonstration or explanation of the company’s
product or services; and payments that are not made in
accordance with a contract between the company and a
foreign entity. These prohibitions also include third
party actions where the company knows that a payment or
a gift will be provided to a government official or
agency for the purpose of obtaining a contract or
business.
Violations of the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act (FCPA) are particularly common when a new
market is opening up because of the intense interaction
with a foreign government during the opening of the
market; in markets that are under heightened government
scrutiny or regulation; in markets where foreign
investors including U.S. business operate through
foreign consultants and contractors; and in markets
where foreign companies are acting through
partners in joint ventures.
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In
developing new markets, large multinational corporations often become
extremely competitive to the point where they will
violate laws and ethics in the pursuit of advantages to
obtain large profits. As Brazil's economy
continues to expand many large
multinational corporations are attempting to obtain
large petrochemical contracts, large construction
contracts, and large infrastructure building contracts. As such, multinational energy
corporations, multinational manufacturing corporations,
multinational construction corporations, and many other
large multinational corporations are competing for these
large Brazilian oil exploration contracts, large
Brazilian construction
contracts, large Brazilian pharmaceutical contracts, and large
Brazilian manufacturing contracts. Many corrupt
multinational companies may offer oil exploration
contract bribes, large construction contract bribes,
large pharmaceutical contract bribes, and large
manufacturing contract bribes to obtain these lucrative
Brazilian contracts. In
these cases large multinational corporations and their
subsidiaries that are registered with the SEC can be
held accountable for illegal actions that violate the FCPA.
International businesses and large
corporations that are conducting business in a new
markets often act through partners in
joint ventures to obtain these lucrative contracts.
As such, the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) requires compliance
departments and anti bribery policies that include
strong and clear policies regarding suppliers in the supply chain and mandate that
third party business partners such as agents,
distributors and joint venture partners also comply with the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
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If you are
the original source with special
knowledge of fraud and are interested in learning more
about a Brazilian government official Multinational Corporation illegal kickback
lawsuit, Brazilian Government Agent Multinational Oil Corporation SEC violation
Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, Brazilian Construction
Contract Multinational Corporation
FCPA
violation Informant Reward Lawsuit, or other large
contract bribe whistleblower recovery lawsuit, please feel free to
contact
Brazilian Government Official Illegal Kickback and Bribery Whistleblower
Reward Lawyer
Jason Coomer via
e-mail message or use our
submission form about a potential Brazilian
Illegal Bribe United States SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program
Action, Brazilian Illegal Kickback Whistleblower Recovery Lawsuit, or other
South American Whistleblower Bounty Action.
