Ex-KBR chief gets 30 months in prison for LNG bribery

HOUSTON — A former KBR Inc. chief executive was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and three years of probation Thursday for his role in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials in return for US$6 billion in engineering and construction contracts. Albert “Jack” Stanley pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring in the decade-long scheme related to the company’s natural gas operations in Nigeria from 1995 to 2004.

Stanley was also ordered to pay US$1,000 a month in restitution after he is released.

 

The 69-year-old will serve a lighter sentence than his plea agreement had outlined, as he had faced the possibility of seven years in prison and US$10.8 million in restitution for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The act says it is unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business or to secure an advantage to getting the business. Stanley was chief executive of KBR until 2001 and chairman until June 2004. He also pleaded guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud KBR and other companies, admitting to improperly receiving US$10.8 million from a consultant hired by KBR at his behest.

 

Stanley acknowledged in his plea that a four-company joint venture, including KBR and firms from France, Italy and Japan, paid about US$182 million to consulting companies that then paid bribes to several Nigerian government officials. Federal investigators focused on a contract for construction of a US$4 billion liquefied natural gas plant on Nigeria’s Bonny Island that was awarded to TSKJ, the Portugal-based, four-company consortium where Stanley was KBR’s senior representative. Three years ago, KBR agreed to pay US$402 million in fines to settle federal criminal charges related to the case.

 

A second man involved in the bribery scheme, British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, was sentenced earlier Thursday to 21 months in prison and two years’ probation. He was arrested in London in 2009, pleaded guilty in Houston a year ago to conspiring and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Tesler, 63, a dual citizen of Britain and Israel, also agreed to forfeit nearly US$149 million from accounts in 12 Swiss banks and four from Israel. Prosecutors said the money was traceable proceeds from the bribery. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed in 1977. Its anti-bribery provisions were broadened in 1998 to apply to foreign firms and persons who directly or through agents allow corrupt payments to take place. (AP)