Saudi Aramco reportedly confirmed Friday that one of its employees took a bribe for arranging a deal with aircraft maker Embraer SA.
Saudi Aramco told the Wall Street Journal an internal investigation found that an unnamed employee took a bribe in 2010 for “facilitating the purchase of three aircraft from Embraer.”
Earlier this week Brazil’s Embraer agreed to pay more than $205 million to the U.S. DOJ and SEC to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The company admitted that it bribed officials in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, and Mozambique. The bribes were paid by a U.S.-based subsidiary through third-party agents
According to U.S. prosecutors, Embraer paid $1.65 million to a Saudi Aramco official via a false agency agreement to secure the purchase of three aircraft for about $93 million.
Saudi Aramco told the Wall Street Journal it cooperated with international agencies conducting “similar investigations” into Embraer deals.
The oil and gas giant said it has now “ceased doing business” with Embraer and added that it will take “appropriate legal measures” against the aircraft company.
Embraer on Monday said it also settled bribery allegations with Brazil authorities by paying about $20 million in penalties.
“From the beginning, Embraer took the matter seriously and fully cooperated with the investigation. As events unfolded, the company voluntarily expanded its scope and shared the results with the appropriate authorities,” the company said.
From the Petro Global News Wire Service © 2016 All Rights Reserved
1 Comment
In the interest of transparency, and especially in view of the proposed upcoming IPO, the "employee(s) " receiving the bribes should be identified, at least by position at the time the incident took place, and including their subsequent career placement within Saudi Aramco until and after the incident was suspected by the company. A lower level employee accepting a bribe is certainly egregious and unacceptable. But the direct involvement of a higher level employee, or someone on a senior management or executive track is even more of a concern since it highlights issues of the company's true management culture, lack of oversight, inadequate management/executive selection and placement criteria, and possible reluctance to pursue cases of internal fraud and corruption – either to avoid negative publicity or to protect other interests in such cases. Furthermore, it makes a mockery of the alleged core values that the company constantly publicizes. In other words, who did this, how did it occur, what failures in internal controls allowed this to happen, and what has been done to prevent such things from recurring? Any potential investor in a company deserves answers to these questions.
Comments are closed for this article!