Ex-trader at Vitol latest to plead guilty in alleged PEMEX bribery scheme
By 
Adrianne Appel2024-08-26T15:47:00
A former trader at the U.S. affiliate of energy giant Vitol pleaded guilty to bribing officials at Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) in an effort to secure contracts.
The guilty plea of Javier Aguilar is just one outcome of the long-running criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) into bribery-related corruption at Vitol concerning energy sales to Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico between 2017 and 2020, the agency said in a press release Thursday.
Vitol, the largest energy trading company in the world, admitted in December 2020 that its employees bribed officials in Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico. It entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, including the payment of $135 million in penalties and implementing a corporate compliance program to detect criminal misconduct.
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