A London court sentenced the former employee of the oil and gas consultancy Unaoil to 3.5 years in prison for bribing Iraqi officials to win contracts worth about $ 1.7 billion in Iraq.
Basil Al Jarah, a British citizen of Iraqi origin, conspired with individuals to pay nearly $ 17 million in bribes to government officials, OCCRP reports citing the U.K. Serious Fraud Office.
The bribes were intended for employees of the South Oil Company and Iraqi Ministry of Oil to have Unaoil build oil pipelines, offshore mooring buoys in the Persian Gulf and other infrastructure projects.
– This was a classic case of corruption, where powerful men took advantage of the desperation and vulnerability of others to line their own pockets, – said SFO head Lisa Osofsky.
In July 2019, Al-Jarah pleaded guilty to five corruption crimes.
This summer, his accomplices Stephen Whiteley and Ziad Akle were found guilty of conspiracy to obtain corrupt payments.
Akle was sentenced to five years in jail, Whiteley to three years, while another co-conspirator in the case, Paul Bond, is to face retrial in January 2021.
Monaco-based Unaoil has been at the center of an international corruption scandal since 2016 over allegations that its employees paid hundreds of millions of dollars to officials in Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria in for nearly 20 years to provide lucrative contracts for their clients.
Unaoil is at the center of an international corruption scandal since 2016 over allegations that its employees paid hundreds of millions of dollars to officials in Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria in for nearly 20 years to provide lucrative contracts for their clients.
It is noted that these contracts were part of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil’s «Master Plan» to «rebuild its oil export capacity and revitalise the Iraqi economy after years of war and occupation».
