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Frank’s International pays SEC $8 million to resolve Angola FCPA … – The FCPA Blog
Netherlands-based oil and gas services provider Frank’s International N.V. agreed Wednesday to pay the SEC $8 million to resolve FCPA violations for bribing Angolan officials through a sales agent.
Frank’s, now known as Expro Group Holdings N.V., was charged by the SEC in an administrative order with violating the FCPA’s anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions.
The company settled without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
Frank’s agreed to pay a civil penalty of $3 million and about $5 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest.
According to the SEC, from 2008 through 2014, Frank’s paid commissions to a sales agent in Angola when employees knew there was a high probability that the agent would use the commissions to bribe Angolan government officials.
The SEC said Frank’s retained the agent in Angola in 2007 “without conducting due diligence and without a contract in place.”
The agent didn’t have “the relevant technical background to advocate on the company’s behalf before [state-owned] Sonangol and, in fact, did not attend technical meetings with Sonangol,” the SEC said. “However, he had personal relationships with [an Angola official] and other Sonangol employees.”
In 2008, Frank’s regional executives approved a backdated agency agreement with a company owned by the Angola agent. By then, the company had already paid the agent $688,000, the SEC said, and retained two “previously at-risk contracts” and won two new contracts.
In 2011 and 2012, the agent passed $555,000 to the Angolan official, the SEC said.
Frank’s later entered into three more agreements with the Angola agent. Between 2008 and 2014, the company paid the agent about $5.5 million. During that time, it won four new contracts in Angola, the SEC said.
Some of Frank’s leadership and oversight of West Africa operations was located abroad, the SEC said, but many senior executives, including the general counsel and CFO, were located in Houston, Texas.
Frank’s became a public company (and issuer) with its IPO in August 2013.
“Houston-based employees reviewed and approved the contracts” between Frank’s and the agent, and Frank’s continued to pay the agent after becoming a public company, the SEC said.
The SEC credited Frank’s for cooperation and remediation, including bringing witnesses from outside the United States for interviews, voluntarily producing relevant documents, and terminating the involved employees and its relationship with the agent in Angola.
In a November 2022 SEC filing, the company said it received a declination from the DOJ subject to a satisfactory resolution of the SEC’s civil claims, according to data from FCPA Tracker.
Netherlands-based oil and gas services provider Frank’s International N.V. agreed Wednesday to pay the SEC $8 million to resolve FCPA violations for bribing Angolan officials through a sales agent.
Frank’s, now known as Expro Group Holdings N.V., was charged by the SEC in an administrative order with violating the FCPA’s anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions.
The company settled without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
Frank’s agreed to pay a civil penalty of $3 million and about $5 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest.
According to the SEC, from 2008 through 2014, Frank’s paid commissions to a sales agent in Angola when employees knew there was a high probability that the agent would use the commissions to bribe Angolan government officials.
The SEC said Frank’s retained the agent in Angola in 2007 “without conducting due diligence and without a contract in place.”
The agent didn’t have “the relevant technical background to advocate on the company’s behalf before [state-owned] Sonangol and, in fact, did not attend technical meetings with Sonangol,” the SEC said. “However, he had personal relationships with [an Angola official] and other Sonangol employees.”
In 2008, Frank’s regional executives approved a backdated agency agreement with a company owned by the Angola agent. By then, the company had already paid the agent $688,000, the SEC said, and retained two “previously at-risk contracts” and won two new contracts.
In 2011 and 2012, the agent passed $555,000 to the Angolan official, the SEC said.
Frank’s later entered into three more agreements with the Angola agent. Between 2008 and 2014, the company paid the agent about $5.5 million. During that time, it won four new contracts in Angola, the SEC said.
Some of Frank’s leadership and oversight of West Africa operations was located abroad, the SEC said, but many senior executives, including the general counsel and CFO, were located in Houston, Texas.
Frank’s became a public company (and issuer) with its IPO in August 2013.
“Houston-based employees reviewed and approved the contracts” between Frank’s and the agent, and Frank’s continued to pay the agent after becoming a public company, the SEC said.
The SEC credited Frank’s for cooperation and remediation, including bringing witnesses from outside the United States for interviews, voluntarily producing relevant documents, and terminating the involved employees and its relationship with the agent in Angola.
In a November 2022 SEC filing, the company said it received a declination from the DOJ subject to a satisfactory resolution of the SEC’s civil claims, according to data from FCPA Tracker.
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Southern Africa
South Africa vs Ireland LIVE Updates: Score, Stream Info, Lineups and How to Watch Rugby World Cup – VAVEL.com
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South Africa vs Ireland LIVE Updates: Score, Stream Info, Lineups and How to Watch Rugby World Cup – VAVEL.com
South Africa vs Ireland LIVE Updates: Score, Stream Info, Lineups and How to Watch Rugby World Cup | 09/23/2023 – VAVEL USA
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Niger junta accuses UN chief of ‘obstructing’ their participation in General Assembly – FRANCE 24 English
Niger’s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body’s General Assembly, saying it was “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Issued on: 23/09/2023 – 08:43
2 min
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Rebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with his family.Negotiations to restore civilian rule have yet to bear fruit, with the junta demanding a three-year transition and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for the immediate return of the democratically elected Bazoum.The coup has also been strongly criticised by Western governments and global bodies such as the UN, which is holding its General Assembly of world leaders in New York this week.In a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “went astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger’s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly”.It criticised “the perfidious actions” of the UN leader, adding that they were “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.Bakary Yaou Sangare, who before the coup was Niger’s ambassador to the UN and is now its foreign minister, was the new leaders’ chosen representative for the gathering.But, according to a diplomatic source, there was also an application by the overthrown government to represent Niamey.”In case of competing credentials from a Member State the secretary-general defers the matter to the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly who will deliberate on the matter,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.”The secretary-general does not decide.”Because the committee will not meet until later, no representative from Niger was added to the speakers’ list.Niger “forcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”, the junta said.Worries over Sahel One of the world’s poorest nations, Niger is the fourth country in West Africa to suffer a coup since 2020, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.Bazoum’s removal heightened international worries over the Sahel region, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.Regional sanctions since the coup mean food and medicines are scarce in landlocked Niger, prices are skyrocketing and there are blackouts after Nigeria cut electricity supplies.Senegal’s President Macky Sall said on Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was “still possible”.”I hope that reason will ultimately prevail… that it is still possible to move forward reasonably to a solution,” Sall said in an interview with France’s RFI and France 24 media outlets.He urged Niger’s coup leaders “to not push (us) to the final decision which would be a military intervention”.The military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defence pact this month, saying they aimed to “establish an architecture of collective defence and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations”.(AFP)
Niger’s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body’s General Assembly, saying it was “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Issued on: 23/09/2023 – 08:43
2 min
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Rebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with his family.
Negotiations to restore civilian rule have yet to bear fruit, with the junta demanding a three-year transition and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for the immediate return of the democratically elected Bazoum.
The coup has also been strongly criticised by Western governments and global bodies such as the UN, which is holding its General Assembly of world leaders in New York this week.
In a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “went astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger‘s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly”.
It criticised “the perfidious actions” of the UN leader, adding that they were “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Bakary Yaou Sangare, who before the coup was Niger’s ambassador to the UN and is now its foreign minister, was the new leaders’ chosen representative for the gathering.
But, according to a diplomatic source, there was also an application by the overthrown government to represent Niamey.
“In case of competing credentials from a Member State the secretary-general defers the matter to the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly who will deliberate on the matter,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“The secretary-general does not decide.”
Because the committee will not meet until later, no representative from Niger was added to the speakers’ list.
Niger “forcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”, the junta said.
Worries over Sahel
One of the world’s poorest nations, Niger is the fourth country in West Africa to suffer a coup since 2020, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
Bazoum’s removal heightened international worries over the Sahel region, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Regional sanctions since the coup mean food and medicines are scarce in landlocked Niger, prices are skyrocketing and there are blackouts after Nigeria cut electricity supplies.
Senegal‘s President Macky Sall said on Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was “still possible”.
“I hope that reason will ultimately prevail… that it is still possible to move forward reasonably to a solution,” Sall said in an interview with France’s RFI and France 24 media outlets.
He urged Niger’s coup leaders “to not push (us) to the final decision which would be a military intervention”.
The military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defence pact this month, saying they aimed to “establish an architecture of collective defence and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations”.
(AFP)
Southern Africa40 mins ago
South Africa vs Ireland LIVE Updates: Score, Stream Info, Lineups and How to Watch Rugby World Cup – VAVEL.com
Southern Africa40 mins ago
South Africa vs Ireland LIVE Updates: Score, Stream Info, Lineups and How to Watch Rugby World Cup – VAVEL.com
West Africa56 mins ago
Niger junta accuses UN chief of ‘obstructing’ their participation in General Assembly – FRANCE 24 English
Stand Out From The Crowd - A Marketing Tip By ZimMarket
Stand Out From The Crowd
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