HOUSTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- A U.K. citizen working for a subsidiary of an American company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Nigerian officials to get lucrative contracts.
Wojciech J. Chodan, 72, a former vice president and consultant for the British subsidiary of the Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc., a U.S. global engineering and construction firm, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Houston to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in his decade-long scheme to bribe top Nigerian governmental authorities to win construction, procurement and engineering contracts, a Department of Justice release said Monday.
Chodan said from about 1994 through June 2004, he and his co-conspirators, Jeffrey Tesler and an unnamed Japanese trading company, agreed to pay bribes to Nigerian government officials to obtain contracts.
Those contracts were to erect liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, valued at more than $6 billion.
Chodan, who was extradited from the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty Friday and will be sentenced Feb. 22.
He faces 60 months in prison and has agreed to pay a fine of $726,885 as part of a plea agreement, the Justice Department said. UPI
