Former oil trader sentenced to four years in foreign bribery schemes

Javier Aguilar, a Mexican national and former oil trader, was sentenced in Brooklyn to four years in prison for bribing officials in Ecuador and Mexico to secure contracts for his employer, Vitol Inc. He was ordered to forfeit $7.13 million and pay a $100,000 fine.

Court evidence showed Aguilar paid more than $1 million in bribes, including about $600,000 to officials at a Mexican state oil company subsidiary, using sham invoices and shell entities to conceal the payments. Seven co-conspirators have pleaded guilty, and Vitol agreed in 2020 to pay $135 million in penalties over related bribery schemes.

Read the full story at justice.gov.