WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2020) A US grand jury has indicted a Mexican oil trader for allegedly paying $870,000 in bribes in a $300 million international bribery and money laundering conspiracy involving corrupt payments to Ecuadorian officials, the Department of Justice said in a press release.
"A Federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York today returned an indictment against a trader at the US subsidiary of a multinational oil distributor and trading company for his alleged participation in a five-year bribery and money laundering scheme involving corrupt payments to Ecuadorian officials," the release said on Tuesday.
As alleged in court documents, between 2015 and 2020, Javier Aguilar and others participated in a conspiracy to pay and conceal bribes to then-Ecuadorian officials, including at Empresa Publica de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (Petroecuador) to obtain business for a $300 million contract to purchase fuel oil, the release said.
"According to the allegations, during the scheme, Aguilar and his co-conspirators caused the payment of approximately $870,000 in bribes that they had promised to then-Ecuadorian officials," the Justice Department said.
The two-count indictment charges Aguilar, 46, a citizen of Mexico and resident of the United States, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
From: Martin Sieff - [email protected]
