Four former Innospec executives were sentenced in a London court Monday for their roles in bribing officials in Indonesia and Iraq, with three of the men given prison terms, the Serious Fraud Office said.
Dennis Kerrison, 69, of Chertsey, Surrey, a former Innospec chief executive, was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Paul Jennings, 57, of Neston, Cheshire, the former CEO of Innospec’s UK operations, was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Miltiades Papachristos, 51 of Thessaloniki, Greece, a former regional sales director of the U.S.based specialty chemical maker, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
David Turner, 59, of Newmarket, Suffolk, a former business director at Innospec, was given a 16-month suspended sentence with 300 hours unpaid work
Kerrison and Papachristos were convicted in June of conspiracy to commit corruption for the Indonesia bribes, the SFO said.
Jennings and Turner pleaded guilty in 2012 to conspiracy to commit corruption in relation to Indonesia and Iraq.
David Green, director of the SFO said Monday: “This successful conclusion to a long-running investigation demonstrates the SFO’s ability and determination to bring corporate criminals to justice.”
In the U.S., Innospec pleaded guilty in March 2010 to a 12-count criminal information. The charges included violating the FCPA and defrauding the United Nations oil-for-food program by bribing Indonesian and Iraqi government officials to sell a leaded gasoline additive known as TEL.
In the UK, Innospec’s British unit pleaded guilty at the same time to bribing employees of a state-owned refinery in Indonesia to win sales of the fuel additive.
The company paid U.S. authorities $27.5 million for the settlement and $12.7 million to the SFO.
Ousama Naaman, Innospec’s agent in Iraq, pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. in June 2010 to conspiracy and substantive FCPA charges. The dual citizen of Canada and Lebanon was sentenced in December 2011 to 30 months in prison and has since been released.
In August 2010, Naaman also agreed with the U.S. SEC to settle civil charges by disgorging $810,076 and prejudgment interest of $67,030, and paying a civil penalty of $438,038.
In January 2011, Paul Jennings agreed to pay the SEC $229,000, without admitting or denying allegations that he approved illegal payments in Iraq in 2004 and 2005.
David Turner settled civil charges with the SEC in August 2010 for violating the FCPA. He agreed to disgorge $40,000 and wasn’t required to pay a penalty.
The SFO’s August 4, 2014 release is here.
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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