{"id":9499,"date":"2025-02-03T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=9499"},"modified":"2025-02-03T16:06:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:06:02","slug":"uk-serious-fraud-office-spent-16mn-on-botched-unaoil-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=9499","title":{"rendered":"UK Serious Fraud Office spent \u00a316mn on botched Unaoil investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The UK Serious Fraud Office spent \u00a316.2mn on its botched corruption investigation into the oil consultancy Unaoil, almost a third of which went to compensate three executives it improperly prosecuted, according to data it was forced to disclose by a tribunal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The years-long probe into corrupt oil and gas deals fixed by Monaco-based Unaoil resulted in tensions with the agency\u2019s US counterparts, a critical UK government review, and the acquittal of three defendants because they did not receive a fair trial.<\/p>\n

The SFO spent \u00a311.3mn on the probe and a further \u00a34.9mn on settlements with the defendants, according to a freedom of information request<\/a> submitted by the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

The anti-fraud agency resisted disclosing the costs of the investigation for nearly 18 months until the First-tier Tribunal ordered the agency in November to provide the data.<\/p>\n

The revelation underscores the impact of the high-profile case failure for the SFO under the leadership of former director Lisa Osofsky, which, in addition to the collapse of a number of other key cases, has left the agency battling to rebuild its reputation and get back on a secure footing.<\/p>\n

<\/source>\"Lisa<\/picture>
Lisa Osofsky served as director of the SFO from September 2018 until August 2023<\/span> \u00a9 Chris J. Ratcliffe\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An SFO spokesperson said: \u201cWe recognise the public interest in our cases and publish information about our work wherever possible, whilst protecting more sensitive details about our investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SFO first opened a criminal investigation into Unaoil, its officers, employees and agents in 2016 over suspected offences of bribery, corruption and money laundering. The case triggered a string of criminal investigations into large western multinational companies including KBR and Petrofac. <\/p>\n

The KBR probe was ultimately closed, while prosecutions in the Petrofac case are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Unaoil was run by the British-Iranian Ahsani family, founded by father Ata Ahsani and operated with his sons, Cyrus and Saman.<\/p>\n

Ata Ahsani paid the US Department of Justice a $2.25mn settlement, but was never convicted. Cyrus and Saman pleaded guilty to charges and co-operated with the DoJ in return for more lenient sentences. Saman was sentenced to a year in prison in 2023. Cyrus is yet to be sentenced.<\/p>\n

<\/source>\"Saman<\/picture>
Saman Ahsani pleaded guilty to charges and co-operated with the US DoJ <\/span> \u00a9 Rebecca Marshall\/New York Times\/Redux\/Eyevine<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the UK, the SFO prosecuted four individuals in relation to the bribery scandal. Ziad Akle and Stephen Whiteley were both Unaoil territory managers. Paul Bond worked for Unaoil client Dutch energy services company SBM Offshore and Basil al-Jarah was Unaoil\u2019s former partner in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Al Jarah pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. The other three individuals were found guilty of conspiracy to give corrupt payments and jailed before having their convictions quashed on appeal.<\/p>\n

The case involved a fierce battle between the US and UK investigations, which led to former SFO director Osofsky being dragged into the scandal over her personal contact with David Tinsley, a representative for the Ahsanis.<\/p>\n

Tinsley, a retired US Drug Enforcement Agency official, had offered to persuade a former Unaoil executive and business partner to plead guilty in the UK in return for the SFO\u2019s abandoning its case against the Ahsanis. <\/p>\n

The SFO ultimately dropped its pursuit of Cyrus and Saman after they agreed a deal with the DoJ.\u00a0In response to a government-ordered review of the case, Osofsky said the agency was overhauling its \u201cworking practices and culture\u201d.<\/p>\n

The three former executives who were found guilty at trial in the UK had their convictions overturned on appeal in 2021 and 2022 in part because of Tinsley\u2019s role in the broader case and SFO disclosure failures linked to the agency\u2019s contact with him.<\/p>\n

The investigation also led to an employment claim against the SFO, which the agency lost, after one of its prosecutors was fired in connection with the case.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the defendants in the UK case either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Bond said that the cost to the taxpayer for the case was \u201ceye-watering\u201d and \u201cnobody has really been held accountable for the decision to blindly proceed with this ill-founded prosecution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Previous representatives for the Ahsanis did not immediately respond to emails from the FT.<\/p>\n

The review<\/a> of the Unaoil probe in 2022 concluded that, while some of the events were \u201cbeyond the control of the SFO\u201d, others were caused by \u201cfailings on the part of particular individuals and\/or by \u2018cultural\u2019 issues\u201d within the agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free The UK Serious Fraud Office spent \u00a316.2mn on its botched corruption investigation into the oil consultancy Unaoil, almost a third of which went to compensate three executives it improperly prosecuted, according to data it was forced to disclose by a tribunal.\u00a0 The years-long probe into corrupt oil and gas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[3660,3661,401,3663,2200,2564,3662],"class_list":{"0":"post-9499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-16mn","9":"tag-botched","10":"tag-fraud","11":"tag-investigation","12":"tag-office","13":"tag-spent","14":"tag-unaoil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}