US petroleum company PetroTiger Ltd is accused of having paid an official of Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol a $333,500 bribe to keep a $39.6 million oil-service contract with the Colombian firm, reported local media on Wednesday.
A joint release by Colombian president’s Secretary of Transparency and Ecopetrol said the ompany had violated anti-corruption laws in exterior countries, laws against money laundering, wire fraud conspiracy, as well as Colombian laws that prohibit the same behavior.
According to US federal prosecutors, criminal charges have been made against two former CEOs of PetroTiger Ltd., Joseph Sigelman and Knut Hammarskjold.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the ex-CEOs, to conceal the bribe, deposited transfers into Mr. Sigelman’s Philippine bank account, using a “side letter” to justify the transfers, and used code name “Manila Split” to refer to the payments between one another.
The two ex-CEOs face charges of 20 years for wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for money laundering conspiracy and five years for each for violating the law against anti-foreign corruption.