The oil giant was sentenced Friday in Paris to a 500.000 euro fine for "bribery of foreign public officials" on the sidelines of the signing of a huge gas contract in Iran in 1997
The Court of Paris sentenced the Total group to a penalty of 500.000 euro for bribery of foreign public officials as part of the signing of some contracts in Iran in the 1997.
However, the group avoided the State's confiscation of the alleged proceeds from the operation.
Total is accused of having paid approximately 30 million dollars in bribes between the 2000 and 2004 in the form of a consultancy contract that aimed to facilitate the conclusion of an agreement on the South Pars field.
It is estimated that Total has paid 30 million dollars in bribes to the intermediaries between the 2000 and 2004, in the form of a consultancy contract, to obtain the facilities for the conclusion of a contract related to the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf , in a context of American Embargo.
The prosecutor's office had asked for a fine of 750.000 euros, and a heavy additional sentence, which provided for the confiscation of the multinational's accounts of 250 million euros, equivalent to the "proceeds of the crime".
The lawyers of the oil company, who had requested the nullity of the proceedings, then requested his acquittal, stating in particular that the crime of "corruption" has not been proven. The French group is the only defendant left in this old case, among the three men who were tried, the former CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie and an Iranian broker who died. A second Iranian broker, Abbas Yazdi, is allegedly dead, but in the absence of a death certificate, the court sentenced him to four years in prison.
The investigation, which began in 2006 in France, initially dealt with two contracts: the 1997 South Pars gas contract, worth 2 billion dollars, but also a contract signed in July 1995 for the exploitation of Iran's Sirri oil fields. A and E, also in the Gulf. In addition to these two deals, Total is suspected of having paid a total of $ 60 million in bribes between 1995 and 2004 through intermediaries and a front company, Baston Limited, to a son of former president Rafsanjani, highly involved in the Iranian public oil sector, under the cover of "consultancy" contracts.
The multinational is judged only for commissions paid after 2000, after the entry into force of the law on bribery of foreign public officials: 30 million dollars, linked only to the South Pars contract.
