Deborah L. Connor, Chief, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Criminal Division
Daniel S. Kahn, Acting Chief, Fraud Section, Criminal Division
Andrey Spektor, Assistant United States Attorney
Mark E. Bini, Assistant United States Attorney
US Assisting Agencies: Unknown
Foreign Enforcement Action/Investigation: Unknown
Foreign Assisting Agencies: Unknown
Origin of the Proceeding:
Unknown
Whistleblower:
Unknown
Case Status:
Ongoing
Summary
Raymond Kohut, a Canadian citizen, worked in business development for an unnamed European energy trading company ("Trading Company") as an employee, agent, and independent contractor.
Empresa Publica de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (“Petroecuador”) was the state-owned oil company of Ecuador.
According to the documents in this case, between 2012 and August 2020, Kohut, together with others, including at least two Ecuadorian consultants and other Trading Company employees, engaged in a scheme to pay bribes on behalf of Trading Company to at least three Ecuadorian officials, including two who worked for Petroecuador, in order to obtain and retain business for Trading Company. Concurrent to the bribery scheme, Kohut and others conducted financial transactions designed to conceal and disguise the bribery scheme. In all, Kohut and others caused Trading Company to make payments totaling more than $70 million to bank accounts in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, and Panama controlled by the consultants, and the consultants used these laundered proceeds to make at least $22 million in payments to the Ecuadorian officials.
On August 18, 2020, the DOJ filed a sealed complaint in the Eastern District of New York against Kohut alleging a cospiracy to commit money laundering. The case was unsealed along with the filing of an information on April 6, 2021, against Kohut that alleged one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. It appears from the docket that Kohut may have entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ, but any such agreement has yet to be disclosed publicly in the docket. On the same date the information was filed, the court ordered Kohut to forfeit $2.2 million.
This case is ongoing.
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