Willbros Group Inc. (WGI) was a publicly-traded company that provides construction, engineering, and other services in the oil and gas industry, and Willbros International Inc. (WII) was the wholly-owned subsidiary through which it conducts international operations.
Jim Bob Brown was a former employee of WII. Brown also worked for WGI affiliates from 1984 through his termination in April 2005. He was assigned to Nigeria from 1991 through August 2000, rising to the level of Division Manager of Willbros (Nigeria) Limited, a WGI subsidiary in Nigeria. In August 2000, he became the Managing Director of the company's subsidiary in Venezuela, where he also supervised business development efforts in Ecuador. In late 2004, Brown transferred back to Nigeria as Managing Director. His employment was terminated in April 2005.
From late 2003 through March 2005, WGI and WII employees agreed to make corrupt payments totaling more than $6 million to Nigerian government officials to assist in obtaining and retaining a $387 million contract for work on a major engineering, procurement, and construction gas pipeline project known as the Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS). In exchange for the EGGS project, the conspirators corruptly paid, promised to pay and authorized payments to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state-owned oil company in Nigeria; NNPC’s subsidiary, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS); a senior official in the executive branch of the Nigerian federal government; officials of a multinational oil company serving as the operator of the EGGS joint venture; and the dominant Nigerian political party.
Also in Nigeria, WGI, through acts by Brown and others, employed a long-running scheme from at least the early 1990s through about 2005 to use fabricated invoices to procure cash from the company's administrative headquarters in Houston to, among other things, bribe Nigerian tax and court officials.
In separate transaction, WGI and WII employees based in South America agreed to make approximately $300,000 in corrupt payments to Ecuadoran government officials of the state-owned oil company PetroEcuador and its subsidiary, PetroComercial, to assist in obtaining the Santo Domingo project, which involved the rehabilitation of approximately sixteen kilometers of a gas pipeline in Ecuador, running from Santo Domingo to El Beaterio.
On September 11, 2006, the DOJ charged Brown in a one count indictment for conspiracy to violate the FCPA. Browd pleaded guilty on September 14, 2006, and under the plea agreement, Brown was obligated to cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation into the Willbros matters. Brown also agreed to pay back taxes. On January 28, 2010, the court sentenced Brown to 12 months and 1 day of imprisonment, supervised release of 2 years, a criminal fine of $17,500, and an assessment of $100.
In a related action with the SEC on September 14, 2006, the SEC filed a four count Complaint in the Southern District of Texas against Brown alleging (1) violations of the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, (2) knowing violation of the books & records provisions of the FCPA, and (3 - 4) aiding and abetting violations of the anti-bribery, books & records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA. On roughly the same date, Brown entered into a Consent Agreement with the SEC, under which he consented to entry of final judgment with admitting or denying the allegations in the Complaint. On September 18, 2006, the court entered an interlocutory judgment against Brown, enjoining him from violating the FCPA. On May 10, 2010, the court ordered the interlocutory judgment converted to final judgment.
