Topic: Bribery and corruption

UPDATED WITH JUDGMENT: A Peruvian judge has ordered the pre-trial detention of 14 arbitrators – including one who has sat at ICSID – for 18 months while they are investigated for allegedly taking bribes to favour scandal-hit construction company Odebrecht in a series of cases that cost the state more than US$250 million.

07 November 2019

The Court of Appeal in The Hague has set aside an ICC award against a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company PDVSA on the ground that the underlying contract was procured through corruption.

06 November 2019

Ghana’s central bank has accused one of its officials of accepting bribes in relation to the awarding of a contract for a retail payments system, citing evidence that emerged in a US$478 million LCIA claim over the project’s termination.

17 September 2019

Swiss authorities have filed corruption charges against Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz in connection with the procurement of mining rights in Guinea that are also the subject of a US$5 billion ICSID case suspended earlier this year.

13 August 2019

The decision of an ICSID tribunal earlier this year refusing to throw out a claim by Canadian energy company Niko Resources after it found there was no proof of corruption has now come to light.

02 August 2019

A team of lawyers, academics and experts in the fields of white-collar crime and arbitration have put together a toolkit to help arbitrators who suspect or are confronted with alleged corruption or money laundering in international arbitration cases.

03 June 2019

A US court has confirmed a US$728 million award in favour of an offshore drilling contractor against Petrobras – rejecting the Brazilian state oil and gas company’s arguments that the tribunal overlooked evidence of bribery and that arbitrator Charles N Brower showed “open hostility” during the hearing.

20 May 2019

A Lithuanian printing house has threatened Kyrgyzstan with a treaty claim after state authorities accused it of bribing officials to win a tender for the production of biometric passports.

03 May 2019

An LCIA award worth US$2 billion that made findings of corruption in a dispute over an iron-ore mining project in Guinea has become public after being submitted to the US courts for enforcement.

25 April 2019

The High Court in London has affirmed that it was not an abuse of process for Romanian authorities to seek to extradite a German businessman to face bribery charges despite the recommendation of an ICSID tribunal that the arrest warrant against him should be temporarily withdrawn.

11 April 2019