Oil services CEO and executive sentenced to prison for roles in foreign bribery scheme
Staff Writer |
A former CEO and former executive of an oil services company were sentenced to prison for their involvement in an international bribery conspiracy.
Article continues below
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Houston Field Office made the announcement.
Anthony “Tony†Mace, 66, of the United Kingdom, the former CEO of SBM Offshore, N.V. (SBM), a Dutch oil services company, and a former Board Member of SBM’s U.S.-based subsidiary, SBM Offshore USA Inc. (SBM USA), was sentenced to serve 36 months in prison and a fine of $150,000.
Robert Zubiate, 66, of Agoura Hills, California, a former sales and marketing executive at SBM USA, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and a fine of $50,000.
In November 2017, Mace and Zubiate each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a scheme to bribe foreign government officials in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
Mace admitted that he joined the conspiracy by authorizing payments in furtherance of the bribery scheme and deliberately avoided learning that those payments were bribes.
In particular, Mace maintained a spreadsheet reflecting payments to five individuals. Mace acknowledged that even though he was aware there was a high risk those individuals were Equatorial Guinean officials, he nevertheless authorized SBM to make over $16 million in payments to those individuals.
Mace further continued a practice that was instituted before he became CEO by splitting payments to SBM’s Brazilian intermediary, that is, paying a portion of the intermediary’s commission to an account in Brazil and another portion of the agent’s commission to accounts in Switzerland held in the name of shell companies.
Mace deliberately avoided learning that the ultimate recipients of the payments that he authorized to the shell companies were Petrobras officials, he admitted.
According to admissions made in connection with Zubiate’s plea, from between 1996 and 2012, Zubiate and others used a third-party sales agent to pay bribes to foreign officials at Petrobras in exchange for those officials’ assisting SBM and SBM USA with winning lucrative offshore oil projects from Petrobras. Zubiate also admitted engaging in a kickback scheme with the bribe-paying sales agent for SBM and its SBM USA. ■