It has been engulfed by a massive corruption scandal in Brazil (2018), where it bribed officials in the state oil company Petrobras in order to secure contracts.
SBM Offshore N.V. (IHC Caland N.V. prior to July 2005) is a Dutch-based global group of companies selling systems and services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
SBM Offshore has avoided criminal prosecution in the Netherlands by paying a record settlement of $240 million to the Dutch Public prosecutor ‘While in Brazil the Petrobras corruption affair — and SBM Offshore’s major role in it — is inexorably building to a climax, the temperature in Netherlands appears to have dropped after a record settlement was reached with the Dutch Public Prosecutor (OM) in November last year. The biggest corruption case in the Dutch history was bought off by SBM for a record $240 million in exchange for which no court case followed and no admission of guilt was entered. To the OM it was important the company had implemented major reforms to prevent re-offending. “We are now a white swan in a pitch-black sea,” said a relieved and proud SBM director Sietse Hepkema in an interview with leading Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad last December. The man hired to clean up the company said he didn’t expect further fines in Brazil. “I really think we paid our dues, “he said. And “I refuse to be Brazil’s smelly kid in the classroom.”‘ In order to be able to take part in Petrobras contracts in the future, SBM has also agreed to a R$1 billion settlement with the Brazilian government. Nevertheless, many of SBM’s executives still face criminal charges in Brazil.
SBM Offshore’s former CEO Tony Mace has been sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in an international bribery conspiracy.
Browsing the web, Romano Pisciotti
