Ex-consultant connected to Sembcorp Marine convicted of corruption in Brazil

A former consultant connected to Singapore’s offshore rig builder Sembcorp Marine has been convicted of corruption and money laundering in a case related to a drilling rig construction contract with Brazil’s drilling contractor Sete Brasil.

The Brazilian Federal Prosecutors (MPF) arrested Guilherme Esteves de Jesus (GDJ) in 2015 and in 2017 brought criminal charges against him.

Companies connected to GDJ were engaged by Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiaries as consultants in Brazil.

Those charges alleged, among other things, that GDJ made certain payments in connection with contracts entered into in Brazil by certain subsidiaries of the company. GDJ is connected to the consultant engaged by the company’s subsidiaries in connection with the drilling unit construction contracts for subsidiaries of Sete Brasil. GDJ defended the charges throughout the criminal proceedings against him.

The company has learnt on February 20, 2020, that GDJ has been convicted by the Federal Courts of Curitiba of the crimes of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. GDJ was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months in prison and was also fined.

SembMarine earlier in February informed that the MPF had filed further charges against GDJ for money laundering. This proceeding is still ongoing.

As previously reported, the MPF has also filed charges against Sembcorp Marine’s ex-employee Martin Cheah Kok Choon for money laundering and corruption in connection with certain drilling rig construction contracts entered into by subsidiaries of the company with Sete Brasil in 2012.

Other than Martin Cheah, the former President of Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA), the company’s Brazilian subsidiary, the company said it was not aware of any other employee past or present of the company that is a subject of the ongoing investigations by the Brazilian authorities related to Operation Car Wash.

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