Willbros Group settling bribery charges

Willbros Group Inc. and its subsidiary Willbros International Inc. entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors in Houston in which they admitted and accepted responsibility for actions by their employees that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Company employees were accused of conspiring to make more than $6 million in bribe payments to Nigerian officials from 2003 to 2004 in order to obtain and retain gas pipeline construction business from a joint venture controlled by the Nigerian state oil company.

Willbros and its employees also schemed in late 2003 and the first half of 2004 to pay a $300,000 bribe to officials of an oil-and-gas company owned by the Ecuadorean government in order to obtain a $3 million contract, according to court documents.

"This company has made exemplary cooperation to the Department of Justice for the past three years in order to earn a deferred prosecution agreement and looks forward to putting this chapter behind it," said Willbros spokesman Robert W. Tarun.

Besides bribing officials, the conspiracy's goal was to "falsify books, records and accounts in connection with the corrupt payments ... in order to make the payments appear as legitimate business expenses when, in fact, they were bribes to Nigerian and Ecuadorean officials," according to court documents filed in connection with the agreement that Willbros entered into with the federal government on Wednesday.

As part of the agreement, the Justice Department agreed to hold off on prosecuting the companies for three years as long as the companies comply with various internal improvements, including retaining an independent compliance monitor to assess their implementation of and compliance with new internal policies and procedures.

With the agreement, Willbros, which specializes in building pipelines, and its subsidiary will pay a criminal penalty of $22 million.

If Willbros Group and Willbros International meet the terms of the agreement for the next three years, the Justice Department will dismiss the case. Willbros Group is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, and has its administrative offices in Houston.

Willbros Group also agreed on Wednesday to pay $10.3 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to the case. Four former employees also agreed to settle the SEC charges against them without admitting or denying the allegations.

One of these four former employees, Jason Edward Steph, as well as former executive Jim Bob Brown, have pleaded guilty for their roles in the bribery scheme and are set to be sentenced in September in Houston federal court.

"We will not allow companies to use illicit payments to alter the competitive balance of the marketplace, as alleged here," said Rose Romero, regional director of the SEC's Fort Worth office.