One year after paying more than $398 million to U.S. prosecutors for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Total S.A. is expected to face new corruption charges, this time in France.

The oil and gas company, along with two Iranian middle men, will face trial in France over related allegations, a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor’s office told the Financial Times. The trial likely will not take place until 2015, the spokesman added.

As Compliance Week previously reported, Total was accused of paying $60 million in bribes to intermediaries of an Iranian government official over a period of nearly a decade in exchange for securing two major oil and gas contracts in Iran. In addition, Total made more than $150 million in illegal profits through the bribery scheme, according to the charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had alleged that Total attempted to cover up the bribes by mischaracterizing them as consulting agreements and “business development expenses” in its books and records. Under the settlement, Total was ordered to pay back $153 million in profits from the illegally-obtained contracts, plus a separate $245.2 million criminal penalty to the Department of Justice for violations of the FCPA.

In announcing its settlement with Total last year, the Justice Department said that French enforcement authorities also had requested that Total, Total’s chairman and chief executive officer, and two additional individuals be referred to the Criminal Court for violations of French law, including France’s foreign bribery law.

The Total case marks the “first coordinated action by French and U.S. law enforcement in a major foreign bribery case,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Our two countries are working more closely today than ever before to combat corporate corruption, and Total, which bought business through bribes, now faces the criminal consequences across two continents.”

Topics