US prosecutors say Unooil founder negotiated kickbacks

The US Justice Department has identified the founder of an energy consulting company that fixed corrupt energy deals worth billions of dollars as personally taking bribes, the latest development in a global corruption scandal shrouded in secrecy.

The DOJ revelations mark the first time US prosecutors have explicitly stated that Ata Ahsani, the head of the British-Iranian family behind Unoil, was involved in cutting deals at the company as part of a wider corruption scheme.

Ata Ahsani founded Unaoil in 1991, and the consultancy largely stayed out of the limelight for decades until prosecutors launched an investigation in 2016 into Western companies paying bribes to win energy contracts around the world. Described as a major fixer for.

Unooil paid kickbacks on behalf of 27 companies including SBM Offshore and Rolls-Royce Atta Ahsani’s sons, Saman Ahsani and Cyrus Ahsani – Unooil’s former chief operating officer and chief executive – plead guilty, according to US allegations .

The DOJ’s brief, which was filed in May and previously unreported, said that Saman Ahsani set up a complex web of shell companies and bank accounts “to pay bribes that his father (Ata) and brother had decided”.

Saman Ahsani was sentenced in January to just over a year in a US prison after pleading guilty along with his brother Cyrus as part of a cooperation deal. US prosecutors said Saman and Cyrus Ahsani corruptly facilitated millions of dollars in bribes to officials in countries from Libya to Kazakhstan to secure oil and gas contracts for major companies.

Details of the case were shrouded in secrecy for years, with the summons and Cyrus Ahsanis’ arguments in closed hearings in 2019 and key documents being kept under seal.

The DOJ’s statement about Ata Ahsani was included in a document prepared in response to efforts by the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Global Investigation Review, represented by the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press, to investigate Atta’s son. Information about the punishment of the can be unheard of. Saman Ahsani for his role in the same corruption scam.

Those groups will argue at a US court hearing on Tuesday that more details in that case should be unsealed.

The Unoil scandal provided a glimpse not only into the bottom line of the global energy market, but also into the rivalry between the top law enforcement agencies in the US and the UK. Their respective investigations into UnaOil led to major clashes over who was to be held responsible for years of criminal activity.

Ata Ahsani was never prosecuted. According to a UK government-commissioned review of the matter by the Serious Fraud Office, he entered into a “non-prosecution agreement” with the DOJ. published last yearand paid a financial penalty of $2.25mn.

The DoJ declined to comment. Atta Ahsani’s lawyer said the Unoil founder was unable to comment.

The UK agency wanted to prosecute the brothers, but it ultimately failed when the DOJ entered into a settlement with them instead. A review of the SFO’s handling of the case noted that the UK had also not prosecuted Ata Ahsani because of its deal with the DOJ.

The case ended in scandal for the SFO, dealing with an agent working for the Ahsani family, after the Court of Appeal quashed three other UK-based Unaol convicts.

The SFO last month also settled an employment dispute with the former case controller of the Unaoil inquiry for a six-figure sum after he was wrongfully sacked in 2018.

Tom Martin was suspended following complaints made against him by both the DoJ and Saman Ahsani. But a UK employment judge ruled in 2021 that the SFO had failed to investigate the true cause of the complaints, which he said were an attempt to get Martin out of the way so that Summons could make a deal in the US.

In a letter released last month to Martin, and seen by the FT, outgoing SFO director Lisa Osofsky admitted the agency was “wrong both in fact and in law” in its findings against him.