By John Lee.
Ziad Akle, Unaoil‘s territory manager for Iraq, has had his conviction for bribery quashed by the UK’s Court of Appeal today (Friday).
He had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in July 2020 having been found guilty of paying over $500,000 in bribes to secure a $55-million contract to supply offshore mooring buoys in Iraq.
The court found that the refusal by Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to provide key documents to the defence was “a serious failure by the SFO to comply with their duty,” adding that “that failure was particularly regrettable given that some of the documents had a clear potential to embarrass the SFO in their prosecution of this case.“
Paul Bond, a former senior sales manager at SBM Offshore (SBM), which was a client of Unaoil, had his request for leave to appeal against his sentence denied.
The full judgement can be read here.
(Source: England and Wales Court of Appeal – Criminal Division)
The post Unaoil Bribery Conviction Quashed first appeared on Iraq Business News.