Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. ("KOM") was a Singaporean corporation that operated shipyards in Asia, North and South America, and Europe. The company primarily built mobile offshore drilling rigs and handled repairs, conversions, and upgrades of shipping vessels. Though not mentioned in the court documents, KOM was a wholly-owned subsidiary if Keppel Corporation, a Singapore corporation publicly traded on the Singaporean stock exchange.
Keppel Offshore & Marine, USA Inc. ("KOM USA") was a wholly-owned subsidiary of KOM based in Houston, Texas, which supervised operations of KOM facilities in Brazil and other locations.
Jeffrey Chow worked in the legal department at KOM from about 1990 through 2017, holding several positions including Administrative Manager, General Manager, and Director.
For many years, executives and employess at Brazil state oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., commonly known as Petrobras, used the bidding process for large projects at the company to solicit bribes from companies awarded contracts with Petrobras. From about 2000 and 2016, executives at KOM and KOM USA participated in these corrupt schemes at Petrobras in order to secure contracts from Petrobras and Sete Brasil, a private Brazilian portfolio management company to which the Petrobras bribery scheme had extended in 2011. Multiple payments were made over the years to employees at Petrobras as well as a party official with the Workers' Party of Brazil, a Brazilian political party. In his role in the legal department, Chow drafted and approved contracts between KOM and its agent in Brazil, knowing that the contracts were fraudulent and meant to conceal the bribery.
On August 29, 2017, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Eastern District of New York against Chow alleging conpiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On the same date, Chow entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ. On November 15, 2019, the court sentenced Chow to one year of probation, which he could serve in Singapore where he lives, and ordered him to pay a fine of $75,000 plus a mandatory assessment of $100.
In related proceedings filed on December 22, 2017, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Eastern District of New York against KOM and KOM USA alleging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On the same date, KOM entered into a three year deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, and KOM USA entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ. Under the terms of the DPA, KOM agreed to pay a total monetary penalty of $422,216,980, which represented a 25% departure below the minimum U.S. Sentencing Guidelines recommended fine, and to self-report on the status of the company's improved compliance policies for three years. Of the total criminal penalty, $105,554,245 would be paid to the U.S. government and included a $4,725,000 criminal fine that KOM agreed to pay on behalf of KOM USA. The remainder of the total fine was split between Brazil and Singapore, with $211,108,490 going to Brazilian authorities and $105,554,245 to Singaporean authorities. In agreeing to defer prosecution, the DOJ noted KOM's substantial cooperation and remediation, but the DOJ did not give KOM credit for self-reporting because the DOJ already knew of the alleged misconduct by the time the company reported it to the agency.
