Ex-Vitol Oil Trader Aguilar Found Guilty in US Bribery Case

(Bloomberg) — A for­mer Vitol Group oil trad­er was found guilty by a New York jury of orches­trat­ing an elab­o­rate scheme to bribe Mexican and Ecuadorian officials.

A fed­er­al jury in Brooklyn, New York, found Javier Aguilar guilty of con­spir­a­cy to vio­late US anti-bribery laws and mon­ey laun­der­ing. The ver­dict, which took less than a day, was the cul­mi­na­tion of a sev­en-week tri­al that pro­vid­ed an unprece­dent­ed win­dow into cor­rup­tion in the com­mod­i­ty industry.

US pros­e­cu­tors alleged that in order to win $500 mil­lion in busi­ness, Aguilar used inter­me­di­aries, shell com­pa­nies and at least six co-con­spir­a­tors to make hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars in illic­it pay­ments to gov­ern­ment offi­cials in Mexico and Ecuador.

“The defen­dant and his co-con­spir­a­tors sought to enrich them­selves through crim­i­nal back­room deals,” Brooklyn US Attorney Breon Peace said in a state­ment. “The peo­ple of Ecuador and Mexico deserved bet­ter and com­pa­nies that play by the rules should know that the process is not rigged.”

Aguilar, 50, now faces as long as 20 years in prison on the most seri­ous charge of mon­ey laun­der­ing. No date has been set for sentencing.

After the ver­dict, US District Judge Eric Vitaliano reject­ed a request from pros­e­cu­tors to place Aguilar into cus­tody. The judge increased Aguilar’s bond to $2 mil­lion, direct­ed that he be fit­ted with an elec­tron­ic ankle bracelet and restrict­ed his trav­el to Texas and the Eastern District of New York.

Daniel Koffmann, the trader’s lawyer, argued that his client wouldn’t be a flight risk. “We dis­agree with the jury’s ver­dict and intend to appeal,” Koffmann said after the pro­ceed­ings were over. 

Vitol, the world’s largest inde­pen­dent oil trad­er, agreed in 2020 to a $160 mil­lion set­tle­ment with the DOJ over alle­ga­tions that it paid bribes in three coun­tries. A spokesper­son for the com­pa­ny declined to com­ment on the verdict.

Aguilar, who declined to com­ment after the ver­dict, was the first com­mod­i­ty trad­er to face tri­al fol­low­ing a series of inves­ti­ga­tions in the US, UK, Brazil and Switzerland that impli­cat­ed many of the industry’s biggest names and yield­ed a slew of guilty pleas.

The bribes includ­ed a lux­u­ry bath­room remod­el­ing and cash pay­ments hand­ed over at hotels, air­ports, and even in the park­ing lot just out­side the Houston office of a Pemex sub­sidiary. Bank records also showed Aguilar siphoned off more than $610,000 in Vitol mon­ey for him­self, accord­ing to the US.

While the world’s com­mod­i­ty traders have long held a rep­u­ta­tion for pay­ing bribes to win busi­ness, the indus­try has sought to dis­tance itself from its taint­ed past. Yet the tes­ti­mo­ny and evi­dence in Aguilar’s tri­al laid bare a brazen web of cor­rup­tion that began in 2015 and con­tin­ued until 2020.

Aguilar was charged in 2020 with orches­trat­ing a five-year bribery and mon­ey-laun­der­ing scheme while work­ing at Vitol’s sub­sidiary in Houston. 

The tri­al fea­tured tes­ti­mo­ny from six men who plead­ed guilty and are coop­er­at­ing with the US, includ­ing for­mer offi­cials at the state owned oil com­pa­nies of Ecuador and Mexico. The coop­er­a­tors also includ­ed sev­er­al mid­dle­men who admit­ted fun­nel­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars in pay­ments for Aguilar.

“Six peo­ple came before you and tes­ti­fied about the bribes they paid or accept­ed,” pros­e­cu­tor Jonathan Lax told jurors dur­ing clos­ing argu­ments Wednesday. “All of these peo­ple knew the defen­dant, they all tes­ti­fied about the same thing — that the defen­dant was in on it.” 

Paper Trail

The tes­ti­mo­ny impli­cat­ed at least six inter­na­tion­al oil trad­ing com­pa­nies, in addi­tion to Vitol, includ­ing Gunvor Group  and Trafigura Group. Gunvor has dis­closed a US inves­ti­ga­tion over bribery in Ecuador and booked a $650 mil­lion pro­vi­sion. Trafigura has declined to com­ment on the case. 

The government’s evi­dence also includ­ed scores of emails Aguilar exchanged with co-con­spir­a­tors using a “007” alias while he dis­cussed mak­ing the bribes. The US said a paper tri­al also linked Aguilar to the mon­ey sent from Vitol through shell com­pa­nies to pay more than a half dozen for­eign gov­ern­ment officials.

Aguilar denied the charges, argu­ing that he had been framed by a Vitol exec­u­tive in Geneva, Marc Ducrest, who pros­e­cu­tors described as an unin­dict­ed co-con­spir­a­tor. Ducrest has not been charged with any crimes.

–With assis­tance from Jack Farchy.

(Updates with Vitol declin­ing to com­ment on the verdict.)

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