The U.K. Serious Fraud Office SFO announced that it has charged logistics and freight operations company F.H. Bertling, a U.K.-based subsidiary of the German-headquartered Bertling Group, and seven individuals with one count of making corrupt payments, contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The SFO accepted the case for investigation in September 2014. They first announced it on 13 July 2016.

The SFO alleged that Peter Ferdinand, Marc Schweiger, Stephen Emler, Joerg Blumberg, Dirk Juergensen, Giuseppe Morreale, Ralf Peterson, and F.H. Bertling conspired together and with others to bribe an agent of the Angolan state-oil company Sonangol to further F.H. Bertling’s business operations in that country. According to the SFO, the alleged activity occurred between January 2005 and December 2006.

F.H. Bertling and the above-named individuals have been requisitioned to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 4 August 2016.

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