WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- Delaware firm Innospec Inc. pleaded guilty Thursday to bribing former Iraqi officials under the U.N. Oil for Food program, U.S. attorneys said.
Innospec pleaded guilty to a 12-count indictment in U.S. District Court in Washington. The charges included violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and violating the U.S. embargo against Cuba, the U.S. Justice Department said in a release.
Innospec agreed to pay a $14.1 million criminal fine.
Innospec also settled federal civil complaints for a total of $13.4 million. The company's British subsidiary also pleaded guilty in London Thursday and will pay a $12.7 million fine.
Innospec, maker of tetraethyl lead, an anti-knock compound used in leaded gasoline, also admitted selling chemicals to Cuban power plants, violating the embargo.
Court documents revealed that from 2000 to 2003, Innospec's Swiss subsidiary was awarded five contracts worth more than $55 million to sell tetraethyl lead to refineries run by the Iraqi Oil Ministry under the Oil for Food program. Innospec admitted its subsidiary paid or promised to pay at least $4 million in kickbacks. Court documents detail how the contracts were inflated by about 10 percent to cover the cost of the illicit payments before submitting them for U.N. approval. The payments were then falsely characterized as "commissions" paid to Ousama Naaman, its agent in Iraq.
Court documents also showed Innospec admitted paying and promising to pay more than $1.5 million in bribes to Iraqi Oil Ministry officials from 2004 to 2008, and paying $150,000 in 2006 to ministry officials to ensure a competing product was not approved for use in Iraqi refineries.
Naaman, Innospec's agent in Iraq, was indicted in Washington in August 2008, and arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, last July. The United States is seeking Naaman's extradition.
