U.S. targets bribery syndicates in Nigeria, others

[timkola]

From Olaolu Akande, New York

THE global fight against corruption may have taken a new dimension, with United States of America (USA) commencing sting operations to uncover international bribery scandals involving its citizens around the world, including those in Nigeria, where the Americans are currently investigating some of the highest number of foreign corruption cases.



US Justice Department released the information to lawyers involved in such cases involving American defendants, just as two former executives of Willbros, a US oil services firm received prison sentences over the weekend for their part in a conspiracy to bribe Nigerian officials.

According to a U.S. Justice Department statement on Friday Jason Edward Steph, 40, got a 15-month jail term, while Jim Bob Brown, 48, got a year in prison. Afterwards both would serve additional two years of supervised release.

Steph and Brown are also is fined $2,000 for each month of their supervised release, when they will be free from the prison but will be reporting on regular times and be under the monitor of the authorities.

US local media reports said the convicted Willbros executives got short jail terms "because of their guilty pleas and cooperation with investigators.

Also as part of the plea bargain, Willbros Group Inc., had been fined more than $32 million in 2008 for violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FCPA.

But in a statement by an international US law office representing defendants under the American FCPA, the US Justice Department earlier this month is now expected this year 2010, to deal more with bribery and corruption cases abroad is through the use of "Sting Operations."

Sting Operations are undercover investigations which sets up the intended target during the very commission of the crime.

As proof of this new tactic, the legal firm, with offices in US and around the world Hogan and Hartson disclosed that "on January 19, 2010, DOJ announced the arrest of 22 individual officers and employees of small companies that manufacture arms and armor."

According to the statement "the defendants were charged with violations of the FCPA in connection with a government-run sting operation in which the FBI set up an undercover operative who promised the defendants that he could obtain contracts for them with an African nation for outfitting a military guard unit, but only if the defendants agreed to pay a 20 percent commission to the undercover agent."

Hogan and Hartson said "not only is this the largest single FCPA case ever brought in terms of the number of defendants, but it represents a fundamental shift in strategies to include enforcement through sting operations."

A sting operation was used against US Congressman William Jefferson in his corruption case in which the name of Nigerian Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar came up. Jefferson has now received a jail sentence of 13 years for violating the FCPA.

But Abubakar was not accused in the case. The alleged bribe from the Congressman was found in his own freezer and was not passed on to the former Nigerian VP as allegedly intended by US prosecutors.

In fact the jury acquitted the former Congressman Jefferson of the single substantive FCPA charge against him, while perhaps as the US lawyers observed, he may have been convicted of conspiracy to violate the FCPA "by accepting these funds."

But Hogan and Hartson expressed concern that lack of international cooperation from Nigeria was a factor against the defendant in that case as in few others involving American defendants who are being tried while other nationals implicated abroad rarely undergo such trials.

According to the legal firm, "Not all foreign governments are acting cooperatively. On August 5, 2009, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia found former United States Congressman William Jefferson guilty of numerous crimes based on his receipt and payment of bribes in several African countries."

The US legal firm insisted that "Jefferson's case highlights the difficulties that FCPA defendants face when the evidence they hope to present in their defense is located in another country."

According to the US lawyers, "in pre-trial motions, Jefferson's defense team sought unsuccessfully to obtain testimony from Abubakar and another person in Nigeria who was alleged to have been involved in the bribery scheme. Although those individuals made statements in the press denying the bribery, they refused to travel to the U.S. to provide testimony."

In conclusion, they argued that, "by all accounts, the FCPA played a significant role in Jefferson's trial. The most widely publicized evidence was a videotape that showed Jefferson accepting $100,000 in marked bills from an FBI informant in exchange for an agreement to use it to bribe then-Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar. FBI agents later searched Jefferson's home and found $90,000 of the marked bills hidden in his freezer."

[showpopulous]

How I wish other countries, especially the European countries will follow suit.

I commend OBAMA sha... KUDOS!

[yamta_1994]

showpopulous
wy u commending obama? for what?
yos a s a person try and wire or carry $100.000.00 into any country europe or us and u will see what happens
this is just politcs as usual..indicting Atiku what happens after? is this the first time?
listen my brother its a known fact are leaders of corupt association of nigeria carry these amounts of money with the knowledge of these countrys officials
lets look for solutions not castigating or prasing others for things that we know its just lip service

[showpopulous]

@yamta I don't agree with you that this is lip service. Not every body gets searched at the airport and the officials tend to game the system. Sometimes they get caught hauling money around. I've seen it happen here in the US. Sometimes they don't get caught, especially when they know how to manipulate the system.

I don't believe that Obama knew that Atiku was about to launder money prior to the act. He(Atiku) just successfully gamed the system but got caught in the long run.

[yamta_1994]

Dear showpopulous
im not saying Obama knew about Atiku, im saying that the system is flawed, and that Atiku and co are found to have huge sums of money does nothing to the average Nigerians and with all the indictments nothing is going to happen
We should be looking for solutions and this money laundering by high leaders of corrupt association of Nigeria will continue till the Country is in the hands of the real citizens.. and at least maybe the level of money laundering will reduce significantly.. simple
so its all about solutions and on ngmix its more of complains guys write about and not what can be done
so if you can try to encourage discussions about solutions i think the forum will be better..my own opinion though..

[udoyenmormon]

WHAT WERE THEY WAITING FOR?

Please Baba shold be first

[len_gibson]

Bribery, Kickbacks, Money Laundering is common thru out most Country's and even here in Australia some have been caught out.
Now Kickbacks are not all that bad but it depends who or which country you are paying Kick backs to as some of it may be used to buy Arms or support Terrorism, so you see its a big Problem.
Money Laundering is much worse as the People doing this are in most cases avoiding paying Tax and Fees on that money which when it gets into the millions can effect the economy, so avoiding paying taxes is against the law as well.
The Top 5 Country's which are Corrupt are deep religious Country and Muslim and Country's with the least amount of corruption are much less Religious and Predominately Christian.