The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended the former general counsel of oil and gas services provider PetroTiger from practicing before the Commission after he pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In 2009 and 2010, Weisman, along with other senior PetroTiger executives, engaged in a conspiracy to bribe a Columbian official to obtain approval for a lucrative contract and further engaged in a fraudulent scheme to obtain kickbacks from the owners of a potential PetroTiger acquisition target.

In September 2015, Weisman was sentenced to two years of probation. He pleaded guilty in 2013 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to one felony count of conspiracy

to violate the FCPA and the wire fraud statute. New York consequently disbarred Weisman in November 2014 and Pennsylvania in April 2015.

Weisman was an attorney admitted to practice law in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. He has appeared and practiced before the SEC by, among other things, advising clients on various filings made with the Commission and communicating with Commission staff, orally and in writing, regarding such filings.

Under Rule 102(e)(2), however, “[a]ny attorney who has been suspended or disbarred by a court of the United States or any State. . . or any person who has been convicted of a felony . . . shall be forthwith suspended from appearing or practicing before the Commission.”

As Compliance Week previously reported, Joseph Sigelman, former co-chief executive officer of PetroTiger, pleaded guilty to similar charges. Sigelman admitted to conspiring with co-CEO Knut Hammarskjold, Weisman, and others to make illegal payments to David Duran, an employee of the Colombian national oil company Ecopetrol. In 2014, Hammarskjold also pleaded guilty.

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