CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Former
Willbros Exec Pleads Guilty in Nigeria, Ecuador Bribe Case
20 Corporate Crime Reporter 36(5), September 14, 2006
Jim Bob Brown, a former executive of a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros
Group Inc., pled guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
(FCPA) by conspiring with others to bribe officials of the governments of Nigeria
and Ecuador.
Willbros, a publicly traded company that provides construction, engineering
and other services in the oil and gas industry, conducts international operations
through a subsidiary known as Willbros International Inc.
At the hearing today, Brown, 45, admitted that in February 2005, he and another Nigeria-based Willbros executive arranged for the payment of approximately $1.5 million in cash in Nigeria as part of a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to, among others, officials of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and a joint venture effectively controlled by that company, in order to obtain and retain gas pipeline construction business in Nigeria.
The payment was part of a larger, multi-million dollar foreign bribery scheme involving, among others, a former senior Willbros executive officer, a U.S. national acting as a purported "consultant" to Willbros, and Nigeria-based employees of a major German engineering, and construction company.
Brown and other mid and senior-level Willbros executives approved of a scheme in which the company’s Nigerian operations submitted fictitious invoices for payment by Willbros.
These funds were used, in part, to make corrupt payments to officials of the Nigerian revenue agencies and courts in order to lower taxes that would otherwise have been assessed, and to influence favorably litigation in Nigeria affecting the business of Willbros.
Brown conspired with the former senior Willbros executive officer and the "consultant," in addition to local Willbros Ecuador employees, to pay at least $300,000 to officials of PetroEcuador, the Ecuadorian government oil company, to obtain a gas pipeline rehabilitation contract and potential future business.
Brown is cooperating with the government's ongoing investigation as part of his plea agreement.
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