Oil-trading bribery probe widens with new US charges, guilty pleas

RIO DE JANEIRO: US prosecutors charged a former US employee of a Swiss energy trading firm with bribery and a Florida company pleaded guilty to bribery as a probe into corruption in energy trading widened in the United States.

Javier Aguilar, a former Vitol Group manager based in Houston, was charged on Tuesday with conspiracy and money laundering involving a US$870,000 bribe to Ecuadorian government officials in order to win a US$300 million oil contract. It marked the first indictment of an employee of a top commodities trading house in the probe.

Trafigura said it has a zero tolerance policy on bribery and corruption."Any suggestion that Trafigura’s current management knew that its payments would be used to make improper payments to employees of Petrobras is not correct," Trafigura said.Luiz Eduardo Andrade, a Brazilian consultant, separately pleaded guilty to acting as a go-between to win contracts with Brazil's Petrobras, according to a DOJ statement. Andrade did not reply to requests for comment.

Sargeant Marine and Daniel Sargeant, the company's top executive, declined to comment through their attorneys.

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