TechnipFMC plc paid the SEC $5 million Monday to settle FCPA offenses related to bribing Iraqi officials to win business with state-owned oil companies.
The London-headquartered oil and gas company disgorged $4.3 million plus pre-judgment interest of $735,000 to the SEC.
In an internal administrative order (pdf), the SEC charged TechnipFMC with violating the FCPA’s books and records and internal accounting controls provisions.
From at least 2008 through 2013, predecessor company FMC Technologies made over $794,000 in payments to a third party consultant who used some of the money to bribe Iraqi government officials to win business from Iraq state-owned oil companies, the SEC said.
In June, TechnipFMC paid $296 million to settle FCPA offenses with the DOJ. The DOJ said the charges against TechnipFMC “arose out of two independent bribery schemes: a scheme by Technip to pay bribes to Brazilian officials and a scheme by FMC to pay bribes to officials in Iraq.”
But the DOJ said TechnipFMC would pay about $214 million of the total penalties to enforcement authorities in Brazil. The penalties paid to the DOJ amounted to $81.9 million.
In Iraq beginning in 2008 and continuing until at least 2013, FMC bribed at least seven government officials “through a Monaco-based intermediary company,” the DOJ said in June.
In April 2016, FMC disclosed in SEC filings that it was under investigation by U.S. authorities for possible FCPA violations connected to Monaco-based Unaoil S.A.M.
Brazil wasn’t mentioned in Monday’s SEC’s settlement.
The SEC said it didn’t impose a civil penalty based on the company’s earlier settlement with the DOJ.
TechnipFMC plc also entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (pdf) with the DOJ. The DPA charged the company with two counts of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. The DPA didn’t require the company to appoint an independent compliance monitor.
TechnipFMC plc was formed in January 2017 with the merger of Paris-based Technip S.A. and FMC Technologies Inc., based in Houston.
The company announced its FCPA settlements with both the DOJ and SEC in June this year. But the SEC delayed publishing its enforcement action until today.
TechnipFMC plc trades on the NYSE under the symbol FTI.
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Harry Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
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