The World Bank announced it won’t be giving any more money to Lahmeyer International after the company was found guilty of bribing officials responsible for lending contracts for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a multi-billion dollar operation. The German engineering firm was found guilty of fraud by the government of Lesotho and fined

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A federal grand jury has indicted seventeen people over conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of $13.1 million in illegal tax refunds. The scheme involved stealing the identity of over 300 nursing home patients to file fake tax returns.
The defendants used the information to file over 365 fraudulent federal tax returns in 27 states, […]

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Houston oilfield services company, Nabors Industries, became the latest oilfield services firm to launch an internal review in response to a federal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In a filing with the SEC, Nabors said, “We are reviewing certain transactions with this vendor, which provides freight forwarding and customs clearance […]

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The Department of Justice has announced that two former executives of ITXC Corporation have pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and one former executive has been already been sentenced for the violations.
Steven J. Ott and Roger Michael Young, former executives of the global telecommunications company, pleaded guilty on July 25, […]

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The DOJ has announced a grand jury indictment of U.S. citizen Jason Edward Steph on charges that he conspired to make corrupt payments to Nigerian officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Steph, age 37, is a former executive of a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc. According to the indictment, […]

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The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal inquiry of nearly a dozen oil and oil services companies, focusing on potentially illegal payments to customs agents who provided freight forwarding and other services that extended to Nigeria. The SEC is investigating as well.
According to Dow Jones, eleven oil and oil service firms received a […]

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TRACE International, a non-profit membership association (and important partner of the Ethisphere Council) that helps companies combat bribery, announced the creation of a new database that can help businesses track the prevalence of bribery attempts and requests.
This new online tool, called BRIBEline, is backed by many leading organizations and companies such as Wal-Mart, International Paper, […]

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According to media reports, another oilfield services provider, Global Industries Ltd, is conducting an internal investigation into possible illegal payments in its West African operations. Specifically the company is looking into a subsidiary’s reimbursement of certain expenses incurred by a customs agent in connection with shipments of materials and the temporary importation of […]

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