Houston energy trader pleads guilty to role in $600,000 payment in international bribes – Stonesoupnetwork

HOUSTON – A former Houston energy trader has pleaded guilty to his role in a bribery scandal involving Mexican government officials to secure contracts, according to prosecutors.

LAST: Houston oil trader accused of international bribery

Court documents show that Javier Aguilar, 50, and other accomplices paid approximately $600,000 in bribes to senior officials at PEMEX Procurement Interional Inc. (PPI) in exchange for their help in winning contracts.

Aguilar was a trader at Vitol Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the world’s largest independent energy trading firm, and worked out of its Houston office. Prosecutors say the kickbacks were used between 2017 and 2020 to secure multiple contracts that allowed Vitol to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to PPI’s wholly owned subsidiary, Mexico’s state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX).

SEE ALSO: “Operation Cash Back”: Multiple arrests in complex bank fraud investigation led by Mont Belvieu police

To conceal the scheme, Aguilar and his accomplices used a series of contracts, false invoices and shell entities based in Curacao and Mexico, according to court documents. They also used fictitious email accounts to discuss the scheme using passwords for bribes, such as “shoes,” “medicine,” “invitations” and “coffee.”

“The Southern District of Texas (SDTX) is the starting point for the fight against corruption and bribery in Latin America,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. “My office’s prosecutors, who are experts in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), will continue to bring justice to those who undermine the integrity of Texas’ vital energy sector by receiving illegal benefits fueled by greed. This guilty verdict marks the beginning of the process of repairing the damage caused by Aguilar and serves as a warning to those who would emulate him and his accomplices.”

MORE CRIME NEWS

Aguilar is one of seven accomplices who have pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the case and are awaiting sentencing. They have agreed to forfeit more than $63 million in restitution in connection with this and related cases.

As part of his guilty plea, Aguilar agreed to transfer the case from Texas to New York, consolidate the cases and forfeit more than $7 million. The request follows Aguilar’s ​​related conviction at trial in February for conspiracy to violate the FCPA, violating the FCPA and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with schemes to bribe Ecuadorian and Mexican officials. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the money laundering conviction and five years for each of the other offenses.