Former Vitol Trader Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Violate FCPA

Javier Aguilar of Houston, former trader at energy trading firm Vitol, pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and taking part in interstate and foreign commerce to distribute bribery proceeds, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. Aguilar paid bribes to officials at the procurement wing of PEMEX, a Mexican state-owned oil company.

Aguilar was convicted earlier this year in a related proceeding for bribing Ecuadorian officials and "laundering the bribe money for both the Ecuador and Mexico bribery schemes," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Aguilar faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and over $7 million in criminal forfeiture.

From 2015 to 2020, Aguilar and various co-conspirators paid around $600,000 in bribes to senior PEMEX Procurement International officials in exchange for various contracts for Vitol to supply "hundreds of millions of dollars of liquid ethane to PEMEX." Aguilar created various fake contracts and invoices and shell entities in Curacao and Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Vitol in 2020 admitted to violating the FCPA by bribing officials in Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil, entering a deferred prosecution agreement and agreeing to pay $135 million in penalties.