Wojciech Chodan, the former U.K.-based KBR manager charged with helping his company and its partners pay $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials, was given a very lenient sentence today by Judge Keith P. Ellison in federal court in Houston.
He must serve just one year of unsupervised probation and pay a $20,000 fine.
Chodan, 74, who holds dual U.K. and Polish citizenship, pleaded guilty in December 2010 to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.
He faced up to five years in prison and had already agreed to forfeit $726,885 as part of his plea.
Chodan is allowed under the terms of his sentence to return to the U.K.
The two other individuals charged in the KBR case are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
Jack Stanley, 66, the company’s former CEO, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a two-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit mail and wire fraud. He received a preliminary sentence of 84 months in prison and was ordered to make a restitution payment of $10.8 million. His jail term hasn’t started yet and is subject to review at final sentencing based on his cooperation in the case.
With Stanley’s help, U.S. enforcement actions against KBR and its three partners resulted in settlements of $1.65 billion.
Jeffrey Tesler, 62, a London lawyer who handled $130 million of the bribes, will be sentenced with Stanley. After his extradition from the U.K., Tesler pleaded guilty last year to an FCPA conspiracy and a substantive FCPA count. He faces up to ten years in prison.
As part of his plea, Tesler already forfeited $149 million to the U.S. Treasury. The money was in about a dozen bank accounts around the world.
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