Petrofac accused of keeping fake accounts to cover bribes - report

Oil services company Petrofac has been accused of maintaining a fake set of accounts to disguise the payment of bribes to foreign government officials, the Guardian reported, citing unnamed sources.

The allegations of corruption emerged as part of a separate investigation by US prosecutors into another firm, Unaoil, the newspaper added.

UK-based Petrofac, which is headed by major Conservative Party donor Ayman Asfari, has been under investigation by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), for suspected bribery and money laundering.

US prosecutors last month said two brothers who ran Unaoil admitted their roles in paying multimillion-dollar bribes to officials in Kazakhstan and eight other countries over 17 years on behalf of multinational firms to secure oil and gas contracts.

The prosecutors alleged in a legal document published last month that 27 firms around the world conspired with Unaoil to corrupt officials in specified countries.

Only two of these firms are named in the legal document as they have admitted paying bribes with Unaoil with the rest given cyphers. However, Petrofac was identified as being one of the firms by the Guardian from “separate sources”.

FTSE 250-listed Petrofac said no charges had been brought against any of its companies or current employees since the SFO started its investigation three years ago.

Cyrus Ahsani, 51, and his brother Saman, 46, who managed Unaoil, pleaded guilty to facilitating the payment of bribes between 1999 and 2016. They admitted conspiring to facilitate bribes on behalf of multinational firms to secure oil and gas contracts for them.

Petrofac has previously disclosed that it hired Unaoil for “the provision of local consultancy services primarily in Kazakhstan between 2002 and 2009”.

According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Cyrus Ahsani conspired with employees of the firm that has been identified by the Guardian as being Petrofac to pay bribes to obtain contracts in Kazakhstan between 2003 and 2010.

The SFO opened an investigation into alleged bribery and money-laundering involving Unaoil in 2016 after the leak of thousands of its emails to journalists in Australia.

In response, Petrofac commissioned a law firm to examine the allegations it conspired with Unaoil to pay bribes to land contracts in Kazakhstan. In 2016, Petrofac said the probe “did not find evidence confirming the payment of bribes”, adding that "no evidence was found that any director of the company was aware of the alleged misconduct that is the subject of the allegations”.

In 2017, the SFO disclosed that it had opened an investigation into Petrofac for suspected bribery and money laundering. This year, David Lufkin, 51, a former Petrofac executive, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of offering bribes between 2011 and 2016 in an attempt to secure contracts in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He has yet to be sentenced.

In a new statement, Petrofac said: “No charges have been brought against any Petrofac Group company or any serving directors, officers or employees since the SFO’s investigation began.”

“Petrofac is a responsible business with clear anti-bribery and corruption standards and we only expect to be awarded contracts by submitting the best technical and most competitive commercial offer.”

“As previously disclosed, Petrofac engaged Unaoil for the provision of local consultancy services primarily in Kazakhstan between 2002 and 2009. The findings from the company’s independent investigation into this period were proactively shared with the SFO in 2016. We continue to engage with the SFO and are focused on bringing this matter to closure.”