2023-06-29 10:48:05
The Paris court validated on Wednesday June 28 the respective payment by TechnipFMC and Technip Energies of 179.45 and 29.45 million euros in fines to avoid prosecution in corruption cases between 2008 and 2012 in Ghana and in Equatorial Guinea. The two groups announced Tuesday their agreement to this Judicial Convention of Public Interest (CJIP), which was approved Wednesday morning during a hearing.
As recalled by the president of the judicial court Stéphane Noël, who chaired the hearing, the two separate companies from Technip SA, the former parent company which no longer exists since 2017, have admitted acts of corruption of foreign public officials.
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“In 2008, a project to develop and operate an oil field in the waters of Ghana led Technip France employees to recruit an intermediary to facilitate” obtaining the contract, “which used a paid third party”a commercial agent, who handed over “part of the funds to three state leaders” Ghanaians, according to Mr. Noël. “Simultaneously, an oil and gas exploitation project in Equatorial Guinea” led Technip France to use the “same intermediary who reported privileged ties” with a family member of an Equatorial Guinean secretary of state, according to Mr. Noël.
“Five years of intense work”
The prosecutor of the financial republic, Jean-François Bohnert, made a statement “five years of intense work” for the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and the Central Office for the Fight against Tax and Financial Offenses (Oclciff), represented by its divisional commander Pascal Fontenille, since the opening of the preliminary investigation at the end of 2017.
In detail, TechnipFMC has accepted a fine of 154.7 million euros but will also pay 24.7 million euros in fines owed by Technip Energies, under their demerger agreement at the beginning of 2021. It will remain Technip Energies to pay a fine of 29.45 million euros. The PNF prosecutor, Céline Guillet, mentioned a “distribution of the file (…) between French, American and Brazilian authorities”the latter two having “finalized their investigations” for facts concerning Brazil and Iraq.
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TechnipFMC had already paid $296 million in fines in 2019 to end prosecutions in the United States and Brazil for corruption of Brazilian and Iraqi officials. The PNF “focused on suspected facts in Equatorial Guinea and Ghana”specified Ms. Guillet, but also mentioned “possible facts of corruption in Angola, without being able to establish it with sufficient precision”.
In order to be able to take into account these facts and other facts that may subsequently appear, “this CJIP is likely to affect acts of the same nature committed between 2008 and 2017 on African territory”specified Mrs Guillet, underlining that the fine had consequently been “increased”.
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