November 5, 2007
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Houston Chronicle Copyright 2007
WASHINGTON — A former executive of a Willbros Group subsidiary has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe government officials in Nigeria as part of a scheme to win a natural gas pipeline contract.
Jason Edward Steph, 37, of Sunset in North Texas, admitted Monday he conspired to funnel more than $6 million to Nigerian officials to help land and then extend a large engineering, procurement and pipeline construction project with a joint venture controlled by Nigeria's state-owned oil company, the Justice Department announced Monday.
"Jason is a good man who found himself in a difficult position," said Steph's lawyer, Matt Hennessy. "He looks forward to putting this matter behind him."
Willbros, a Panama-based company that maintains its administrative offices in Houston, provides construction, engineering and other services for the oil and gas industry.
Steph worked for Willbros subsidiary Willbros International from 1998 until April 2005, including the last three years as the company's general manager of onshore operations in Nigeria.
Willbros International, together with a German partner, was bidding on a natural gas project in the Niger Delta known as the Eastern Gas Gathering System. The total project, including a second phase, was valued at nearly $388 million.
Steph admitted that in late 2003 he conspired with a former Willbros executive based in Houston, two "sham" consultants, and some Nigeria-based employees of the German firm to make a series of payments to officials from the Nigerian oil company, a Nigerian political party and a senior official in the government to win the base pipeline contract.
The original indictment against Steph in July alleged that the Houston-based executive left the company in January 2005, and that the company began an investigation into allegations of tax improprieties related to a Bolivian subsidiary. Eventually, that investigation broadened to include Nigeria, and Willbros International stopped payments to the Nigerian consultants.
But Steph, Jim Bob "J.B." Brown — a former managing director for Willbros International in Nigeria — and the German company employees then became concerned that if those payments dried up, Willbros and the German company would lose out on the second phase of the project, valued at $141 million, according to Steph's plea agreement.
In his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of Houston, Steph admitted that he, Brown and the others arranged to continuing funneling payments to the Nigerians.
Brown pleaded guilty to a similar charge last year, the Justice Department said in a news release.
Steph faces a possible sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Justice Department officials said.
Lake set his sentencing for Jan. 28.
A Willbros spokeswoman declined to comment Monday on Steph's plea agreement.
Last week, Willbros agreed to pay more than $32 million to settle federal investigations of its dealings in Nigeria, Bolivia and Ecuador.
[email protected]
Houston Chronicle Copyright 2007
WASHINGTON — A former executive of a Willbros Group subsidiary has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe government officials in Nigeria as part of a scheme to win a natural gas pipeline contract.
Jason Edward Steph, 37, of Sunset in North Texas, admitted Monday he conspired to funnel more than $6 million to Nigerian officials to help land and then extend a large engineering, procurement and pipeline construction project with a joint venture controlled by Nigeria's state-owned oil company, the Justice Department announced Monday.
"Jason is a good man who found himself in a difficult position," said Steph's lawyer, Matt Hennessy. "He looks forward to putting this matter behind him."
Willbros, a Panama-based company that maintains its administrative offices in Houston, provides construction, engineering and other services for the oil and gas industry.
Steph worked for Willbros subsidiary Willbros International from 1998 until April 2005, including the last three years as the company's general manager of onshore operations in Nigeria.
Willbros International, together with a German partner, was bidding on a natural gas project in the Niger Delta known as the Eastern Gas Gathering System. The total project, including a second phase, was valued at nearly $388 million.
Steph admitted that in late 2003 he conspired with a former Willbros executive based in Houston, two "sham" consultants, and some Nigeria-based employees of the German firm to make a series of payments to officials from the Nigerian oil company, a Nigerian political party and a senior official in the government to win the base pipeline contract.
The original indictment against Steph in July alleged that the Houston-based executive left the company in January 2005, and that the company began an investigation into allegations of tax improprieties related to a Bolivian subsidiary. Eventually, that investigation broadened to include Nigeria, and Willbros International stopped payments to the Nigerian consultants.
But Steph, Jim Bob "J.B." Brown — a former managing director for Willbros International in Nigeria — and the German company employees then became concerned that if those payments dried up, Willbros and the German company would lose out on the second phase of the project, valued at $141 million, according to Steph's plea agreement.
In his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of Houston, Steph admitted that he, Brown and the others arranged to continuing funneling payments to the Nigerians.
Brown pleaded guilty to a similar charge last year, the Justice Department said in a news release.
Steph faces a possible sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Justice Department officials said.
Lake set his sentencing for Jan. 28.
A Willbros spokeswoman declined to comment Monday on Steph's plea agreement.
Last week, Willbros agreed to pay more than $32 million to settle federal investigations of its dealings in Nigeria, Bolivia and Ecuador.
[email protected]
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