Geneva oil trader reaches $661M settlement with US, Swiss authorities over bribery in Ecuador
Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor said Friday that it has reached $661 million settlement with U.S. and Swiss prosecutors after a conviction for bribery of foreign officials in connection with the petroleum industry in Ecuador
GENEVA (AP) — Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor said Friday that it has reached a $661 million settlement with U.S. and Swiss prosecutors after convictions for bribery of foreign officials in connection with the petroleum industry in Ecuador.
The Swiss attorney general's office says the company, which was founded decades ago by oil traders Gennady Timchenko of Russia and Torbjörn Törnqvist of Sweden, didn't take “reasonable and necessary organizational measures” to prevent bribery by its employees in the South American country over four years starting in February 2013.
A statement from U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn said Judge Vitaliano sentenced Gunvor to pay a criminal penalty of over $374 million and forfeit more than $287 million in “ill-gotten gains.”
“Gunvor has accepted responsibility for the actions of certain of its former agents and employees – all of whom Gunvor stopped working with years ago and before it learned of the U.S. investigation – and pled guilty in federal court in New York” on Friday, the company said in a statement.
