A former executive of a subsidiary of Houston-based Wilbros Group Inc. (WGI) has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe some Federal Government officials with more than $6 million in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Justice Department announced on Monday. Jason Edward Steph, 37, a US citizen residing in Sunset, Texas, entered his guilty plea before Judge Sim Lake of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Steph was indicted on July 19, 2007.
Wilbros, a publicly traded company that provides construction, engineering and other services in the oil and gas industry, conducts international operations through a subsidiary known as Wilbros International Incorporated (WII). Steph was a WII employee from 1998 to April 2005.
From 2002 until April 2005, he served as General Manager of WII�s on-shore operations in Nigeria.
Steph admitted that in late 2003 he, a senior executive in charge of WGI�s international business, two purported consultants working for WII, and certain Nigeria-based employees of a major German engineering and construction company, agreed to make a series of corrupt payments totalling more than $6 million.
These payments were offered and made to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (the Nigerian state-owned oil company) and its subsidiary, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the PDP, and a senior official in the executive branch of the Federal Government, with a view to assisting in securing a major gas pipeline construction contract in Nigeria.
Steph further admitted that in February and March of 2005 he, former WII executive Jim Bob Brown, and others arranged for the payment of approximately $1.8 million in cash to government officials in Nigeria in furtherance of the conspiracy.
Brown pleaded guilty to a similar charge on September 14, 2006.
Steph is cooperating with the government�s ongoing investigation as part of his plea agreement. The maximum sentence for conspiring to violate the FCPA is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing has been set for January 25, 2008.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Thomas E. Stevens of the Criminal Division�s Fraud Section.
The case continues to be investigated by the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division.
The Fraud Section acknowledges the assistance of the Fort Worth Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Fraud Section�s investigation is ongoing.
Ironically, since the US authorities commenced their investigations, the Nigerian authorities including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the government in particular have chosen to remain silent.
Personnel of the NNPC, its subsidiary NAPIMS who were at the helm of affairs when these bribes were allegedly offered have since been promoted to higher responsibility within the system.