NEW JERSEY – The former co-chief executive officer of PetroTiger Ltd. – a British Virgin Islands oil and gas company with operations in Colombia and offices in New Jersey – was indicted last week for his role in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials, officials said.
Joseph Sigelman, 43, who resides in Miami and the Philippines, was indicted today by a federal grand jury in New Jersey and charged with conspiracy to violate the federal law and to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and other felonies.
Gregory Weisman, 42, of Moorestown, New Jersey, the former general counsel of PetroTiger, pleaded guilty on Nov. 8, 2013, to conspiracy to violate the federal laws, including wire fraud.
Sigelman’s co-CEO, Knut Hammarskjold, 42, of Greenville, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Feb. 18, 2014.
According to court records, Sigelman and others allegedly paid bribes to an official in Colombia in exchange for the official’s help in securing approval for an oil services contract worth roughly $39 million.
To hide the bribes, the defendants first attempted to make the payments to a bank account in the name of the foreign official’s wife for consulting services she did not perform.
Sigelman and Hammarskjold provided Weisman invoices, including her bank account information.
The conspirators made the payments directly to the official’s bank account when attempts to transfer the money to his wife’s account failed. Sigelman and his conspirators then took steps to hide the bribe payments from PetroTiger’s board members.
In addition, court documents allege that Sigelman and others attempted to secure kickback payments while negotiating an acquisition of another company on behalf of PetroTiger, including on behalf of several members of PetroTiger’s board of directors who were helping to fund the acquisition.
In exchange for negotiating more favorable terms for the owners of the target company, two of the owners agreed to kick back to the conspirators a portion of the increased purchase price, officials said.
To hide the kickback payments, authorities said Sigelman and others had the payments deposited into Sigelman’s bank account in the Philippines, created a “side letter” to falsely justify the payments and used the code name “Manila Split” to refer to the payments amongst themselves.