Canadian oil and gas company to plead guilty to bribery
Calgary-based Niko Resources will admit in court Friday that it bribed
a Bangladeshi minister with the use of a vehicle and a trip, the oil
and gas company announced Thursday.
The development comes after a six-year RCMP probe into allegations
that a government official was offered goods and services by the
company in an attempt to "induce that official to influence the acts
or decisions" of the state.
According to a news release issued by the company on Thursday, Niko
was indicted for offering the official the use of a car and a paid
trip to Canada and the U.S., in contravention of Canada's Corruption
and Foreign Public Officials Act.
Niko Resources and the Crown prosecutor will make a joint sentencing
recommendation in court Friday, the release said.
The company has agreed "to enter a guilty plea to a single charge,
which is expected to resolve all matters investigated by the RCMP."
Company officials and the RCMP could not be reached for comment on
Thursday night.
In 2009, the company announced the RCMP was investigating allegations
that Niko or one of its subsidiaries "may have made improper payments"
to government officials in Bangladesh.
That same year, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International
called Canada a "laggard" in enforcing an international anti-bribery
convention devised in 1997 under the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development.
To that point, only one Canadian firm, Hydro Kleen, had been fined
$25,000 for bribing a U.S. customs agent.
Niko Resources has oil and gas operations in Bangladesh, India,
Pakistan, Kurdistan, Indonesia, Madagascar and Trinidad.
The company has been involved in Bangladesh for more than a decade,
and struck pay dirt in 2002 participating in a joint venture with
India-based Reliance Industries in the D6 block off the east coast of
India.
The site turned out to be the largest natural gas discovery of its
time, with an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet of in-place reserves.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Canadian+company+plead+guilty+bribery/4997099/story.html
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