Unaoil this week said in a statement that it has instructed its lawyers to commence legal action against Fairfax Media and its partners in relation to the malicious and damaging allegations negligently published by these media organizations.

As Compliance Week previously reported, a special report published in April by Fairfax Media and the Huffington Post exposed an extensive global web of bribery and corruption, in which high-ranking bureaucrats and politicians awarded billions of dollars in government contracts in exchange for bribes paid on behalf of some of the world’s largest companies. The heart of the investigative report, “The Bribe Factory,” focused on Unaoil, a provider of industrial solutions to the energy sector in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.

“In the months following the publication of sensationalist allegations against Unaoil by Fairfax Media and its partners, Unaoil, its directors, as well as its staff, have sustained unprecedented reputational and financial damage,” the company stated. Unaoil estimates its damages to be over $100 million and intends to hold Fairfax Media and its partners to account for their irresponsible and injurious reporting, it added.  

Unaoil said it’s also filing a criminal complaint with law enforcement in Monaco relating to the theft of company data and is awaiting the outcome of the investigation. “Since the exposure in the press of a criminal conspiracy to extort the company,” Unaoil said it has “continued to receive serious and personally threatening communications from persons seeking to unlawfully damage Unaoil and its operations.”

Unaoil’s threat of legal action comes in the same week that the Armada Group refuted related allegations and has also threatened legal action: “The sustained damage to our reputations brought about by this series of articles cannot continue to go unaddressed. We have since hired a top-tier international law firm to investigate the sources and methods used by these news organizations in the course of their reporting, and the incorrect perceptions that such reporting has created.” 

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