By: Vincent Low/
It has been reported that in the Keppel bribery case, some US$55 million in corrupt payments were made by a former Keppel agent to some Brazilian govt officials in order to secure deals for Keppel in Brazil.
The Brazilian agent made “improper payments” to those officials for more than 10 years between 2001 and 2014, and these were carried out with the knowledge or approval of former Keppel senior executives.
According to a Bloomberg report in Aug last year, the agent, Zwi Skornicki, had testified in a Brazilian court that 5 senior executives of Keppel, including then CEO of Keppel Offshore & Marine, Chow Yew Yuen, did authorize him to bribe the Brazilian Govt officials.
Mr Skornicki revealed in court that the bribes were to help secure Brazilian Petrobras contracts that often exceeded a billion dollars. He named the 5 Keppel top executives in court, who were involved in the bribery:
1. Chow Yew Yuen, Keppel Offshore & Marine CEO
2. Tong Chong Heong, former senior executive at Keppel Corp
3. Tay Kim Hock, former CEO of Keppel Fels Brasil
4. Kwok Kai Choong, current CEO at Keppel Fels Brasil
5. Choo Chiau Beng, a former Keppel Corp CEO and current non-resident ambassador to Brazil
Will the Singapore govt proceed to prosecute these executives named by the agent in the Brazilian court?
In their joint statement, CPIB and AGC would only say, “Investigations in respect of the individuals involved are ongoing.”