In efforts to better understand the company that is responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I spent hours reading articles in the British press on BP. Came across this article:
“BP and its bosses sued over alleged bribery of officials”
The company and its current and former chief executives are just three of the defendants named in a wide-ranging lawsuit alleging that money changed hands to win oil and gas licences in the former Soviet state. Other defendants include BG Group and chief executive Frank Chapman, as well as Norway’s Statoil and its chief executive, Helge Lund.
The suit has been filed by Grynberg Production Corporation, a Denver-based oil company owned and run by chairman Jack Grynberg.
The core allegation is that the defendants, without Grynberg’s knowledge, bribed officials in Kazakhstan to win oil rights from joint ventures in which Grynberg had an interest.
The 27-page lawsuit, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, accuses the defendants of violating the United States’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act, of conspiring to break the RICO Act, of common law fraud, of theft, and breaching constructive trust. Grynberg is claiming damages in excess of $6m (£3m).