Colombia, Greece Charge Dozens Tied to Various Bribe Schemes

Siemens AG Greece PetroTiger Colombia

The continued escalation of foreign enforcement of bribe-makers and bribe-takers continued, with mass arrests or indictments in Colombia and Greece related to offerors and recipients of bribes at issue in several FCPA enforcement actions. In Colombia, according to the Wall St. Journal, prosecutors recently charged six current or former employees of Ecopetrol SA, a majority state-owned oil company, with accepting bribes from employees of PetroTiger.  PetroTiger’s former Chief Executive Officer is scheduled to stand trial in April in a New Jersey federal court on charges of funneling money to one of the Ecopetrol employees arrested, including through consulting contracts with the employee’s wife, in exchange for contracts.  Two other former PetroTiger executives have already pleaded guilty in the case (see prior FCPA Scorecard coverage). In Greece, also according to the Wall St. Journal, authorities recently indicted 64 people related to bribery in the Siemens AG cases.  Both alleged offerors of bribes at Siemens, and alleged recipients of bribes at a Greek telephone company, were charged.  As previously detailed, eight former Siemens executives were indicted in the U.S. in 2011 related to allegations of bribery in Argentina.  Siemens itself reached a record $800 million resolution in 2008 with the DOJ and SEC related to violations in numerous countries including Greece.