Ex-Energy Trader for Vitol Pleads Guilty to Second International Bribery Scheme

 

Javier Aguilar Paid Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Bribes

Will Forfeit More than $7.1 Million in Funds Involved in Laundering Bribes to Mexican and Ecuadorian Officials; Defendants Ordered to Pay Over $200 Million in Forfeiture and Criminal Penalties

In federal court in Brooklyn, Javier Aguilar pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and engaging in interstate and foreign commerce to promote and to distribute the proceeds of commercial bribery for paying bribes to officials at PEMEX Procurement International (PPI), a wholly owned affiliate of the Mexican state-owned oil company, PEMEX.  The plea follows Aguilar’s conviction at trial earlier this year in a related case for paying bribes to Ecuadorian officials and laundering the bribe money for both the Ecuador and Mexico bribery schemes.  The plea proceeding was held before United States District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano.  When sentenced in both cases, Aguilar faces a maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment as well as $7,129,938 in criminal forfeiture.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), Nicole M. Argentieri, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Jeffrey B. Veltri, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office (FBI), announced the guilty plea.

“With this guilty plea the defendant admits his role in the widespread corruption of the international commodities market and to casting aside laws and rules that apply to all to unfairly line the pockets of the few,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “The actions of the defendant and his co-conspirators, and of those who act similarly, destroys people’s faith in their governments, disadvantages those who play by the rules, undermines confidence in American businesses worldwide, and will not be tolerated by this Office or our law enforcement partners.”

Mr. Peace expressed his appreciation to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas for their assistance on the case. 

“The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been the law of the land, and enforceable worldwide, for decades. Yet unscrupulous businessmen still try to bribe their way to profit,” said Jeffrey B. Veltri, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI’s Miami Field Office. “My message to them is that the charges and penalties you will face are not worth the gain. I want to commend the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for their diligence pursuing this case, but especially the agents and analysts who leave no stone unturned in pursuit of FCPA violators.”

Between 2015 and 2020, Aguilar was a trader in the Houston office of Vitol, Inc. (Vitol), the U.S. affiliate of the Vitol group of companies, which together form one of the world’s largest energy trading firms.  As part of the scheme, Aguilar and his co-conspirators paid approximately $600,000 in bribes to two senior officials at PPI to obtain numerous contracts for Vitol to supply hundreds of millions of dollars of liquid ethane to PEMEX.  To conceal the scheme, Aguilar and his co-conspirators used a series of fake contracts, sham invoices and shell entities incorporated in Curaçao and Mexico.  The defendant and his co-conspirators also used alias email accounts to communicate about the scheme, and code words, including “shoes,” “medicine,” “invitations” and “coffee,” to describe the bribes.

In December 2020, Vitol admitted to bribing officials in Ecuador, Mexico, and Brazil in violation of the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.  Vitol entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York.  As a part of the resolution, Vitol agreed to pay a combined $135 million in penalties as part of a coordinated resolution with the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and authorities in Brazil.

The FCPA conspiracy charge, based in the Southern District of Texas (SDTX), was initially filed in the EDNY in December 2022 as part of a superseding indictment consolidating both the Ecuador- and Mexico-related conduct.  In May 2023, the government consented to Aguilar’s pre-trial motion to dismiss that charge in the EDNY on venue grounds.  That charge and others related were then refiled in SDTX in August 2023.  As part of his guilty plea, Aguilar consented to transfer the SDTX case back to the EDNY, reconsolidating the cases.

Seven of the defendant’s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing.  Together, these individuals have agreed to forfeit more than $63 million.

In July 2022, Mr. Peace was selected as the Chairperson of the White Collar Fraud subcommittee for the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC).  As the leader of the subcommittee, Mr. Peace plays a key role in making recommendations to the AGAC to facilitate the prevention, investigation and prosecution of various financially motivated, non-violent crimes including bribery and corruption offenses.