UK court begins criminal proceedings against oil firm for corruption in Iraq
"Today the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has commenced criminal proceedings against Unaoil Monaco SAM and Unaoil Ltd as part of an ongoing corruption prosecution," read an SFO statement released on Tuesday.
"This follows charges already brought against four individuals for alleged conspiracy to make corrupt payments to secure the award of contracts in Iraq."
The SFO says it pursues "criminals for the financial benefit they have made from their crimes and assist overseas jurisdictions with their investigations into serious and complex fraud, bribery and corruption cases."
The charges relate to alleged corrupt conduct between June 2005 and August 2011 while UNaoil was seeking lucrative Iraqi oil contracts, including one "worth US$733 million to Leighton Contractors Singapore PTE Ltd for a project to build two oil pipelines in southern Iraq," read the statement.
from/k24
Unaoil's website lists a headquarters in Monaco and an Iraqi branch in Basra, Iraq's oil-rich and southernmost province. According to the company, it also has operations in Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, and the UAE.
The investigation began after a joint news report in 2016 by Australia’s Fairfax Media and the Huffington Post that cited hundreds of thousands of emails that they claimed showed largescale corruption involving top Iraqi officials that included former Oil Minister Abdul-Kareem Luaibi and former Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Shahristani.
Both have denied any such involvement.
The most recent statement on Unaoil's website regarding the investigation, from October, states, "While the press articles and the investigations have had a devastating impact on the business of the Unaoil group, with a number of companies in the group having to go into liquidation as a result, the remaining core team of employees is working hard in Iraq to ensure that Unaoil’s obligations to its customers are met."
