Business Crimes Hotline

The DPA was the result of the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation into the activities of a four-company joint venture, TSKJ, in connection with liquefied natural gas facilities at Bonny Island, Nigeria. Specifically, the joint venture partners were alleged to have paid more than $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials over the course of a decade, in order to secure more than $6 billion in contracts. Dismissal of the Information was contingent upon the company's cooperation with the government over the two-year period, including completing a review ' and enhancement, as necessary ' of its internal controls, policies, and procedures.

Stanford Financial's Former CIO Sentenced to Three-Year Prison Term

On Sept. 13, the DOJ announced that the former Chief Investment Officer of Stanford Financial Group, Laura Pendergest-Holt, had been sentenced to 36 months in prison by Judge David Hittner of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, along with an equal term of supervised release. Holt was sentenced, based upon her earlier guilty plea, for her role in obstructing a 2009 SEC investigation into the investment portfolio of convicted financier Robert Allen Stanford's offshore bank in Antigua, Stanford International Bank (SIB). Specifically, Holt admitted to intentionally and corruptly giving sworn testimony before the SEC that was designed to frustrate the Commission's efforts regarding its investigation of SIB's investment portfolio, in an attempt to impede the investigation, thus enabling SIB to continue its operations.

Business Crimes Hotline and In the Courts were written by Associate Editors Matthew J. Alexander and Jamie Schafer, respectively. Both are associates at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Washington, DC.

TEXAS

Snamprogetti Netherlands BV, Earns Dismissal of Charges from DOJ

On Sept. 17, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice a pending two-count criminal Information in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas against former Eni SpA unit, Snamprogetti Netherlands BV (Snamprogetti). The July 2010 Information filed against Snamprogetti, a unit now under the control of Saipem, another Eni subsidiary, included a single count each of conspiracy and aiding-and-abetting Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. The Information was originally filed as part of the company's deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that included a $240 million criminal fine, along with a corresponding disgorgement to the SEC of $125 million.

The DPA was the result of the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation into the activities of a four-company joint venture, TSKJ, in connection with liquefied natural gas facilities at Bonny Island, Nigeria. Specifically, the joint venture partners were alleged to have paid more than $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials over the course of a decade, in order to secure more than $6 billion in contracts. Dismissal of the Information was contingent upon the company's cooperation with the government over the two-year period, including completing a review ' and enhancement, as necessary ' of its internal controls, policies, and procedures.

Stanford Financial's Former CIO Sentenced to Three-Year Prison Term

On Sept. 13, the DOJ announced that the former Chief Investment Officer of Stanford Financial Group, Laura Pendergest-Holt, had been sentenced to 36 months in prison by Judge David Hittner of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, along with an equal term of supervised release. Holt was sentenced, based upon her earlier guilty plea, for her role in obstructing a 2009 SEC investigation into the investment portfolio of convicted financier Robert Allen Stanford's offshore bank in Antigua, Stanford International Bank (SIB). Specifically, Holt admitted to intentionally and corruptly giving sworn testimony before the SEC that was designed to frustrate the Commission's efforts regarding its investigation of SIB's investment portfolio, in an attempt to impede the investigation, thus enabling SIB to continue its operations.

Business Crimes Hotline and In the Courts were written by Associate Editors Matthew J. Alexander and Jamie Schafer, respectively. Both are associates at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Washington, DC.