Jailed Ex-Unaoil Exec Ordered to Pay Up Over Iraq Bribery Plot

Friday, June 18, 2021

A former senior executive of Monaco-based oil and gas consultancy, who was sentenced to jail over a bribery plot in post-occupation Iraq, has been ordered to pay 402,466 pounds ($560,000) by a London judge.

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which prosecuted the case, said on Thursday that Basil Al Jarah, who was last year sentenced to three years and four months in prison, had to pay up within three months or face a further three years in prison.

Al Jarah, Unaoil's former Iraq country manager, admitted to paying $17 million in bribes to win contracts to build oil pipelines, an oil platform, and offshore mooring buoys in the Gulf after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The court said he had profited by more than 3.35 million pounds from the scheme.

Al Jarah is one of four executives convicted in London after a five-year SFO investigation that originally centered on the prominent Ahsani family, which ran Unaoil, a company that secured energy contracts for Western blue-chip clients in the Middle East, African and Central Asia.

But the SFO's hopes of pursuing such a high-level prosecution in Britain were scuppered after a clash with U.S. prosecutors in Italy over the extradition of Saman Ahsani.

Saman and his brother Cyrus, Unaoil's British-Iranian former chief operating officer and chief executive, await sentencing in the United States after pleading guilty to bribery in 2019.

($1 = 0.7190 pounds)


Categories: Middle East Industry News Activity Regulations

Related Stories

Japan Protests China’s New Oil and Gas Construction Activities in East China Sea

Japanese Oil and Gas Firm Enters Two Blocks off Malaysia

Woodside Agrees Long-Term LNG Supply with Petronas Unit

Petronas-Eni Upstream Joint Venture to Take Up to Two Years to Set Up

French Oil Major Acquires Interests in Multiple Blocks in Southeast Asia

UK Firm Secures Exploration Extension for Two Blocks off Vietnam

CNOOC Starts Production at Offshore Field in South China Sea

MODEC, Carbon Clean to Advance FPSO-Mounted Carbon Capture Tech

Azeri SOCAR Plans New Agreements with Oil and Gas Majors

Fugro Lands Deepwater Gas Field Job in Southeast Asia

Current News

Petrovietnam, Partners Sign PSC for Block Off Vietnam

Japan Protests China’s New Oil and Gas Construction Activities in East China Sea

CNOOC Signs Hydrocarbons Exploration and Production Deal with Kazakhstan

Thailand's PTT to Buy LNG from Glenfarne's Alaska LNG Project

Woodside and Jera Agree LNG Cargoes Supply for Japan’s Winter Period

Petronas Expands Suriname Portfolio with Deepwater Block Acquisition

Japanese Oil and Gas Firm Enters Two Blocks off Malaysia

Yinson Production, “K” LINE Target Europe's CCS with FSIU and LCO2 Solutions

Woodside Agrees Long-Term LNG Supply with Petronas Unit

MODEC and Terra Drone Renew FPSO Drone Inspection Partnership

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com