Former vitol trader pleads guilty in international bribery scheme — Businessman in a suit takes dollar bills in his pocket as a bribe. Two person sealing the deal with bribe money. Corruption and bribery concept.

HOUSTON — Javier Aguilar, a 50-year-old former energy trader from Houston, pled guilty on Wednesday to charges related to a scheme involving the bribery of Mexican government officials to secure contracts for Vitol Inc., his former employer and the U.S. affiliate of the world’s largest independent energy trading firm. The guilty plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas (SDTX).

According to court documents, Aguilar and his co-conspirators paid approximately $600,000 in bribes to two senior officials at PEMEX Procurement International Inc. (PPI), a subsidiary of Mexico’s state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), to win contracts for Vitol. These contracts, related to the supply of ethane, were worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Aguilar and his associates concealed the scheme using fake contracts, sham invoices, and shell entities in Curaçao and Mexico, and communicated using alias email accounts and code words such as “shoes,” “medicine,” “invitations,” and “coffee” to refer to the bribes.

“Javier Aguilar has now admitted that he bribed foreign officials to win business when he worked as an oil and gas trader at Vitol Inc., using shell companies, fake contracts, sham invoices and alias email accounts,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri. Aguilar’s plea comes after his conviction in February for related charges involving bribery schemes targeting officials in Ecuador and Mexico.

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Aguilar’s guilty plea to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Travel Act includes an agreement to forfeit $7,129,938. He faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for money laundering and up to five years for each of the other charges at his upcoming sentencing.

In December 2020, Vitol admitted to violating the FCPA by bribing officials in Ecuador, Mexico, and Brazil. The company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay $135 million in penalties as part of a coordinated resolution with the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Brazilian authorities.

Seven of Aguilar’s co-conspirators have also pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Collectively, they have agreed to forfeit more than $63 million related to this and other schemes.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s International Corruption Squad in Miami, with contributions from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) and SDTX, and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

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