A former executive at Monaco-based oil and gas consultancy Unaoil pleaded guilty to five conspiracy charges, according to the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). This is the first conviction in the SFO’s bribery probe into the firm, which started in March 2016.Â
Basil Al Jarah, who was Unaoil’s partner in Iraq, plead guilty to offences “related[d] to the award of contracts to supply and install single point moorings and oil pipelines in southern Iraq,” the SFO wrote in a press statement.
As part of the investigation, Ziad Akle, Paul Bond and Stephen Whiteley have each been charged with multiple offences of conspiracy to make corrupt payments, but have pleaded not guilty and await criminal trial in six months.
Akle, who faces three offences of conspiracy, is a former Unaoil territory manager for Iraq; Whiteley was a vice president of Dutch oil and gas services company SBM (Offshore) and acted as Unaoil’s general territories manager for Iraq, Kazakhstan and Angola; Bond was a senior sales manager with SBM (Offshore). The latter two face two counts of conspiracy each.
