Amec Foster Wheeler Limited agreed on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice to pay a total of more than $43 million related to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The British-based oil and gas services company, owned by John Wood Group PLC, entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the DoJ which included a $18.3 million criminal penalty. More than $10.3 million of the $43 million total paid by Foster Wheeler will go toward settling the SEC’s charges.
The SEC’s order finds that from 2011 to 2014 Foster Wheeler engaged in a scheme to win a $190 million oil and gas engineering and design contract from the Brazilian state-owned oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., during which Foster Wheeler’s U.K. subsidiary issued bribes to Brazilian officials in order to obtain the contract and establish a business presence in Brazil. Totaling approximately $1.1 million, the bribes were paid through third-party agents, including one agent who despite failing Foster Wheeler’s due diligence process was allowed to “unofficially” continue to work on the project, according to the SEC.
“Continuing to use an agent who presented a significant corruption risk so that Foster Wheeler could expand its business and win a contract in Brazil demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the corporate compliance program,” said Tracy Price, deputy chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit, in an agency statement.
Foster Wheeler made other settlement payments to Brazil Controladoria-General da União and Advocacia-Geral da União, the Ministério Publico Federal, and the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office. Foster Wheeler first disclosed the investigation in April of 2017 in an SEC filing, with the SFO joining the investigation in July of the same year. 