4 April 2014
De Brauw and Paul Hastings lead SBM Offshore investigation
Dutch oil platform company SBM Offshore has discovered evidence of possible bribery involving foreign officials in Angola and Equatorial Guinea during an internal investigation.
Partners Timothy Dickinson, Corinne Lammers, Kirby Behre and of counsel Jennifer Riddle at Paul Hastings in Washington, DC and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek partners Marnix Somsen, in Amsterdam, and Jaap de Keijzer, in Brussels, conducted the investigation. Paul Hastings hired forensic accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers to help with the investigation.
In a statement, SBM Offshore said it had looked into approximately USD 200 million worth of payments made to agents between 2007 and 2011. Over the course of its internal investigation, which was started in April 2012, the company said it found that at least some of the money it paid to agents may have ended up in the hands of government officials in Africa.
The external investigators were given full access to records, files, electronic data and personnel. This included reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents and interviewing former and current board members and employees in the legal, sales and accounting departments.
Partners Timothy Dickinson, Corinne Lammers, Kirby Behre and of counsel Jennifer Riddle at Paul Hastings in Washington, DC and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek partners Marnix Somsen, in Amsterdam, and Jaap de Keijzer, in Brussels, conducted the investigation. Paul Hastings hired forensic accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers to help with the investigation.
In a statement, SBM Offshore said it had looked into approximately USD 200 million worth of payments made to agents between 2007 and 2011. Over the course of its internal investigation, which was started in April 2012, the company said it found that at least some of the money it paid to agents may have ended up in the hands of government officials in Africa.
The external investigators were given full access to records, files, electronic data and personnel. This included reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents and interviewing former and current board members and employees in the legal, sales and accounting departments.