Office of Public Affairs reports on bribery conviction of oil and gas trader

Article summary

The Office of Public Affairs has reported that a federal jury has convicted Javier Aguilar, former Vitol Inc employee, for playing a role in a scheme to bribe government officials of Ecuador and Mexico and launder money to secure contracts worth millions of dollars for Vitol Inc. Based on evidence presented, Aguilar paid more than $US 1m in bribes to Petroecuador officials and PEMEX Procurement International. Between 2015 and 2020, Aguilar, along with various co-conspirators agreed to bribe officials to obtain a $US 300m contract and used a middle eastern state-owned entity to circumvent Petroecuador’s contract restrictions. When the officials that had been bribed were replaced after the 2017 Ecuadorean presidential election, Aguilar and the co-conspirators agreed to bribe the new officials. Aguilar had used shell entities and sham invoices to launder bribe payments to officials at PEMEX Procurement International. Seven of Aguilar's co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and have agreed to forfeit more...