J. Bryan Williams was a senior executive at Mobil Oil Corporation ("Mobil"). Williams was responsible for, among other things, Mobil's oil trading operations in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, including the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In 1995 and 1996, Williams was involved in efforts by Mobil to purchase from Kazakhstan an interest in a large producing oil field in Kazakhstan known as the Tengiz oil field. Kasakhstan was represented in the Tengiz negotiations by a small New York merchant bank and the bank's Chairman, with whom Williams had a longstanding business and personal relationship. During the negotiations of the Tengiz deal, Kazakhstan insisted that Mobil pay the fees the country had agreed to pay the Merchant Bank for its services, which were set at 5% of the eventual purchase price. On April 9, 1996, Mobil and the Kazakh Government reached an agreement in principle for Mobil to purchase a 25% interest in the Tengiz field for $1.05 billion. On or about June 24, 1996, the Chairman of the Merchant Bank caused $2 million of the bank's fee to be transferred to a secret account at Banque Indosuez in Switzerland in the name of Alqi Holdings Ltd., a British Virgin Islands corporation secretly beneficially owned by Williams. This $2 million was intended as a kickback for his role in the Tengiz deal and other Mobil projects in Kazakhstan. Williams then failed to report that $2 million on his income tax return.
On April 2, 2003, the DOJ filed a three count Indictment in the Southern District of New York ("S.D.N.Y.") against Williams. This indictment was superseded on April 14, 2003, by a seven count Indictment filed in the S.D.N.Y. against Williams which alleged (1) conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; (2) tax evasion; and (3-7) filing false income tax returns. This indictment was then superseded on June 12, 2003, by a two count Information filed in the S.D.N.Y. against Williams that dropped the filing of false income tax return counts. After pleading guilty to the counts in the Information, Williams was sentenced by the court on September 18, 2003. The court sentenced Williams to 46 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and the court ordered Williams to pay a fine of $25,000 plus a mandatory assessment of $200 and restitution of $8 million. On October 22, 2003, the court amended its judgment and reduced the restitution amount to $3.512 million. However, the full $8 million that was held in the accounts of Alqi Holdings were to be transferred to the court pending a determination of penalties and interest owed to the IRS. The restitution would be paid out of that $8 million.
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