Unaoil
| Private | |
| Industry | Oil industry |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | La Rousse, Monaco |
|
Key people
|
Ahsani family |
| Website | www |
Unaoil is a Monaco based company run by the Ahsani family founded in 1991. According to Unaoil, it provides "industrial solutions to the energy sector in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa." Unaoil is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven with an opaque banking system.
In 2010 Unaoil entered into an agreement with Leighton Holdings with the aim of securing a $500 million oil pipeline contract in Iraq. In 2011 Leighton Holdings referred the deal to the police as corruption. In 2014 a UK High Court judge queried the corruption claims after Unaoil denied them in a civil litigation matter involving Leighton Holidngs. In 2016, the UK Serious Fraud Office alleged before the UK High Court in a separate case brought by Unaoil that the firm was engaged in "extensive" corruption. Unaoil's litigation, in which it alleged the SFO had acted unlwafully, was dismissed by the High Court.
In March 2016, the SFO began investigating allegations Unaoil acting corruptly in facilitating business deals involving Rolls Royce, Halliburton-KBR, Petrofac, ABB, Leighton Holdings and Amec Foster Wheeler.
In the United States, KBR, FMC Technologies and Core Labs all disclosed in 2016 that they had been contacted by the Justice Department in connection with a DOJ probe of Unaoil.
The SFO and DOJ inquiries followed media reports that Unaoil allegedly facilitated extensive corruption and bribery in the oil industry. A leaked cache of Unaoil internal company emails dating from 2001 to 2012 were the subject of a series of articles published by Fairfax Media investigative reporters Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker and Michael Bachelard in the Australian newspaper The Age, and The Huffington Post in March 2016. Under headlines such as "Unaoil: World's Biggest Bribe Scandal" and "Unaoil: Company that Bribed the World",The Age wrote that "How they make their money is simple. Oil-rich countries often suffer poor governance and high levels of corruption. Unaoil's business plan is to play on the fears of large Western companies that they cannot win contracts without its help. Its operatives then bribe officials in oil-producing nations to help these clients win government-funded projects. The corrupt officials might rig a tender committee. Or leak inside information. Or ensure a contract is awarded without a competitive tender".
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Wikipedia