Britain: Unaoil paid million dollars bribe in exchange for oil deals in Iraq

British prosecutors revealed that the oil and gas consultancy company Unaoil paid nearly $6 million in bribes to obtain deals in Iraq worth $800 million, between 2005 and 2011.

The prosecutors presented the evidence that supports their claim for the first time during the hearing, which began Thursday, revealing the names of the involved officials, who are the former executives of the company: Stephen Whitley and Paul Bond, in addition to a sales manager at the Dutch Energy Services Company SBM, called Ziyad Akl.

Whitley was vice president of SBM, before joining Unaoil as branch director in Iraq, before taking on various other positions, while Akl was the Unaoil CEO in Iraq. On the other hand, Bond was SBM sales manager for the Middle East.

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According to Bloomberg news agency, the three were accused, on Sunday, of plotting to provide bribes to secure millions of dollars in labour contracts in Iraq between 2005 and 2011.

The three defendants denied the accusations, which were reached by the investigations conducted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) since 2016.

According to Michael Brompton, a lawyer for SFO, a consulting firm in the oil sector, founded by the Ahsani family in Monaco, and the Dutch company SBM, obtained, with the help of Unaoil, a contract to supply three floating marine systems to the Gulf, which was done “after a long process of manoeuvring and manipulation.”

Unaoil also helped Leighton Offshore Pte Ltd., registered in Singapore, to obtain a contract for laying two 48-inch pipelines and installing floating systems.

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