Man charged in Brazil for alleged illegal payments linked to SembMarine's drillship contracts

Singapore

SEMBCORP Marine confirmed at the release of its full-year results that the Brazilian authorities have charged an individual arrested due to alleged illegal payments connected to drillship awards to the yard group.

President and CEO Wong Weng Sun said at the results briefing on Wednesday that Guilherme Esteves de Jesus, has been charged with various offences by the Brazilian authorities. These charges are connected to drillship contracts entered into by the group's subsidiaries.

He added that the company is not aware of any of its employees being implicated by any authorities.

Mr Wong declined comment when probed on the nature of the relationship between de Jesus and SembMarine and its subsidiaries.

SembMarine had in a March 2015 disclosure pertaining to de Jesus's arrest, described the man as "connected to companies" engaged by the yard group's subsidiaries. These said companies served as consultants in connection to the Sete Brasil drillship contracts awarded to these subsidiaries.

Mr Wong said de Jesus is defending the charges against him and the date of the court hearing of the charges against him is not yet known.

SembMarine had initiated an internal investigation into the allegations raised in the March 2015 disclosure, but this ongoing investigation remains legally privileged, he said.

The SembMarine CEO also maintained that the S$329 million provision made for the Sete Brasil drillship contracts remains adequate.

SembMarine's US$5.5 billion worth of drillship contracts with Sete Brasil have come under renewed spotlight after Keppel Offshore & Marine (KOM) announced some US$422 million in fines for corrupt payments made to win contracts in Brazil. The Sete Brasil contracts worth some US$10 billion that were awarded to SembMarine and KOM have also come under review in a US Department of Justice probe into the said corrupt payments.