No prosecution for Seatrium over Brazilian corruption offences, High Court approves US$110 million penalty

[SINGAPORE] Seatrium will not face criminal prosecution in Singapore over corruption offences in Brazil after the High Court approved a deferred prosecution agreement in which the company will pay a net sum of US$57 million to local authorities.

A deferred prosecution agreement is a deal in which the prosecution agrees to defer criminal charges against a corporate offender in exchange for its compliance with certain conditions.

In Seatrium’s case, those conditions are the payment of a financial penalty and a commitment to overhaul its internal ethics and compliance programmes.

Under such an arrangement, the company will not face criminal prosecution so long as it meets all the conditions over the agreed period. Should it breach any of the terms, however, prosecutors can revive proceedings.

The deferred prosecution agreement was signed on Jul 30, 2025, making it the first such agreement approved by a Singapore court involving a corporate entity.

In a bourse filing on Friday (Apr 27), the marine offshore engineering company confirmed that the High Court has given its approval, with no change to the terms of the agreement as originally signed with the prosecutor.

Penalty paid

Under the agreement, Seatrium is required to pay a total financial penalty of US$110 million to Singapore authorities.

However, because Seatrium has already paid around US$130 million to Brazilian authorities for the same underlying misconduct, Singapore has agreed to credit up to US$53 million of that sum against the penalty.

The net amount payable to local authorities is therefore US$57 million, equivalent to approximately S$73.3 million.

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Seatrium said it had already made the necessary provisions for the payment in its FY2025 financial statements, and that Friday’s court approval would therefore have no material impact on the net earnings or net tangible asset per share of the group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2026.

The settlement brings closure to a long-running legal matter stemming from Operation Car Wash, Brazil’s largest corruption probe, which began in 2014.

The investigation uncovered a widespread network of illicit payments from corporate executives to politicians in exchange for favourable contracts with state-owned oil company Petrobras.

In 2023, Singapore authorities began investigating Seatrium in connection with the corruption scandal.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau announced on May 31, 2023, that it had commenced investigations into Seatrium and individuals from the company for alleged corruption offences in Brazil.

A year later, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the police’s Commercial Affairs Department launched a separate joint investigation into potential offences under Singapore’s securities laws, also linked to the probe.

Investigations were concluded, with the company’s conduct addressed in the courts through the deferred prosecution agreement.

Shares of Seatrium rose 1.7 per cent or S$0.04 to S$2.41 on Friday before the announcement.