The Feds are ramping up prosecution efforts to combat corporate misconduct.
Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas, the owner of multiple U.S.-based energy companies pleaded guilty to FCPA and fraud charges for bribing officials to secure contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).
Shiera Bastidas, who lives in the U.S., is the owner of Ema Venezuela and Vertix Instruments, two oil-equipment service providers headquartered in Maracaibo, Venezuela. The businessman pleaded guilty in a federal court yesterday to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud and one count of violating the FCPA. Sentencing for Shiera Bastidas is scheduled for July 8, 2016, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
“The five convictions announced today hold to account bribe payers as well as the corrupt foreign officials who laundered the bribe money through the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, DoJ’s Criminal Division, in a statement. “These individual prosecutions are the result of a tenacious and coordinated effort by our prosecutors and agents to unravel a complex web of bribes paid to Venezuelan officials. And they demonstrate our commitment to building cases from the ground up, instead of counting on companies and other wrongdoers to self-disclose their crimes.”
Prosecutors said that the Venezuelan oil contractor used bribes between 2009 and 2014 to secure contracts. He admitted to wiring $25,000 through a U.S. bank account to a PDVSA official. The Wall Street Journal reported that the contractor used money, recreational travel, meals and entertainment to bribe officials. He engaged in illicit activities with fellow businessman Roberto Rincón, who has been detained in connection with the bribery case.
Take the conversation around corporate misconduct and wrongdoing further at Ethisphere’s 4th Annual Latin America Ethics Summit in São Paulo, Brazil. Click here to register.
