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Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor said Friday that it has reached a $661 million settlement with U.S. and Swiss prosecutors after convictions for bribery of foreign officials in connection with the petroleum industry in Ecuador.<\/p>\n
The Swiss attorney general\u2019s office says the company didn\u2019t take \u201creasonable and necessary organizational measures\u201d to prevent bribery by its employees in the South American country over four years starting in February 2013.<\/p>\n
A statement from U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn said Judge Vitaliano sentenced Gunvor to pay a criminal penalty of over $374 million and forfeit more than $287 million in \u201cill-gotten gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGunvor has accepted responsibility for the actions of certain of its former agents and employees \u2013 all of whom Gunvor stopped working with years ago and before it learned of the U.S. investigation \u2013 and pled guilty in federal court in New York\u201d on Friday, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Swiss prosecutors said the case involved payouts to that led the state petroleum company Petroecuador to award two oil-related contracts to Gunvor. U.S. authorities said the Geneva commodities trader earned more than $384 million in profits \u201cfrom the business it corruptly obtained\u201d related to the Ecuadorian oil company.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities said they had previously won convictions in New York of four people who pleaded guilty to money laundering-related charges, including former Gunvor consultants Antonio Pere Ycaza and Enrique Pere Ycaza; former Gunvor employee and\u00a0agent Raymond Kohut<\/a>; and Nilsen Arias Sandoval, a former senior Petroecuador official.<\/p>\n \u201cGunvor\u2019s years long bribery scheme involving high-level Ecuadoran officials was both detrimental to the business environment and eroded the public\u2019s trust and confidence in their government,\u201d said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jeffrey Veltri in a statement.<\/p>\n He credited \u201csignificant cooperation\u201d from authorities in the Cayman Islands, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Panama, Portugal, Singapore, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n Gunvor was founded decades ago by oil traders Gennady Timchenko of Russia and Torbj\u00f6rn T\u00f6rnqvist of Sweden,<\/p>\n Timchenko, who is under international sanctions in connection with Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, divested his holdings in the firm and sold his shares to T\u00f6rnqvist in 2014 as it appeared sanctions would be imposed against him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n