TechnipFMC Logo Photo: Shutterstock

Global oil and gas company TechnipFMC has agreed to pay more than $5 million to settle a foreign bribery case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—months after paying about $300 million to resolve a separate anti-corruption investigation involving the Justice Department and authorities in Brazil.   

The latest settlement stems from allegations that TechnipFMC took part in a bribery scheme from 2008 through 2013 to secure business from Iraqi state-owned oil companies, according to the SEC. The agency announced the agreement Monday. 

TechnipFMC, which has headquarters in Houston, London and Paris, allegedly paid $794,000 to a third-party consultant, which bribed Iraqi government officials to obtain contracts for the energy company to provide metering technologies for oil and gas production measurement, according to the SEC.

The SEC alleged that TechnipFMC had insufficient internal accounting controls and attempted to conceal the payments in question by characterizing them as legitimate transactions in the company's books and records. 

Under the settlement agreement, TechnipFMC agreed to repay $4,327,194 in ill-gotten gains and $734,712 in prejudgment interest. Over the next three years, the company also must provide periodic reports to the SEC about the status of its efforts to bolster its compliance measures. 

In June, TechnipFMC announced it made a separate agreement to pay more than $300 million to resolve foreign bribery investigations in Brazil and the U.S. Brazil collected $214 million of the U.S. criminal penalty.

The company also entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department on charges of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Its U.S. subsidiary, Technip USA Inc., also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

The firm's chairman and CEO, Doug Pferdehirt, said at the time in a written statement that the agreement resolved decade-old conduct by former employees and "does not reflect the core values of our company today.

"We are committed to doing business the right way, and that means operating with integrity everywhere," he added. "Our strong compliance program supports this commitment, and we will continue to enhance our program to ensure that our employees have the practical tools and resources to do business the right way."

When asked to comment on the settlement related to the alleged Iraq bribery scheme, a spokeswoman for the company referred to Pferdehirt's earlier statement. 

While investigating TechnipFMC, the DOJ worked with the governments of Brazil, the United Kingdom, Monaco, Italy, Australia, France and Switzerland, according to Matt Miner, deputy assistant attorney general.

"Large international investigations like the one against Technip require more than just the resources of the Department of Justice, acting alone," he said at an American Bar Association conference in Prague. "The coordinated law enforcement effort in the Technip investigation is far from an outlier."

TechnipFMC also disclosed in June that it was cooperating with French authorities probing the firm's projects in Equatorial Guinea and Ghana. The company said it had set aside $70 million to resolve charges that might arise from the investigation.  

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