Tuesday, February 27, 2024

CRIMINAL CAPTALI$M

Freight-Forwarding Insiders Charged With Smuggling Tobacco Into Australia

Cigarettes
This cigarette brand is only found in the illegal trade in Australia, according to authorities (ABF/AFP)

PUBLISHED FEB 27, 2024 9:19 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

A logistics professional and five accomplices have been charged with trying to smuggle $10 million worth of cigarettes into Australia, and authorities believe that the scheme was connected to a Middle Eastern crime syndicate. 

Australian authorities will allow a handful of cigarettes over the border duty-free - but not millions of them. The Australian Border Force says that agents in Victoria discovered a cargo of 10 million illicit cigarettes that arrived on a ship from Vietnam on February 3, leading to a series of arrests this week. 

Two people charged in the scheme had access to shipping data systems, the ABF alleged, and they manipulated records for the consignment in an attempt to hide it. The fact that logistics insiders were arrested made this bust different, authorities said, and it could be disruptive to smugglers' operations. 

One of these men is accused of planning and arranging the importation, and allegedly accessed freight forwarding systems to set up and conceal the shipment. He stands accused of "using trusted insiders with knowledge of the transport and freight logistics industry" to smuggle the tobacco consignment. 

A second man was employed in logistics and allegedly helped the syndicate to pick up and move the cargo. The other three were accused of related offenses for illicit distribution of tobacco. Several of the men are believed to be linked to a Middle Eastern organized crime syndicate, which is suspected of being behind a series of illicit tobacco imports into Victoria. 

The illicit cigarette trade is a multibillion-dollar enterprise in Australia, and it costs the government millions in unpaid tax revenue. 

"This type of crime corrupts people in trusted positions [in logistics] . . . and there's no doubt that there's others out there," a police official told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. "We're going to continue to investigate." 

Top image: Marco Verch / CC BY 2.0 


Energy Trader Convicted of Bribing Officials in a Developing Nation

Court case illustrates the profit potential of small bribes in the energy-trading business

Cash
Public domain / Pixabay

PUBLISHED FEB 26, 2024 7:02 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

A U.S. federal jury has convicted a former Vitol trader of bribery and money laundering in connection with a sprawling scheme to secure contracts in Latin America. 

Javier Aguilar, formerly employed by trading house Vitol, has been convicted of bribing officials at Petroecuador and laundering money for bribe payments in Ecuador and Mexico. He denies the charges, and his lawyers claim that he was set up by a former executive at Vitol.

The jury found that over the course of 2015-2020, Aguilar and his co-conspirators bribed Ecuadorian officials to obtain a $300 million fuel oil contract. Since Petroecuador has restrictions on contracts with private firms, the deal was arranged through a Middle Eastern state-owned enterprise, and the paid-off Ecuadorian officials made sure that this firm won the contract.

Aguilar also allegedly bribed two officials with Mexican state energy firm Pemex, paying $600,000 to obtain a supply contract for ethane gas worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Court documents illustrate the profound financial incentives for committing bribery in the energy-trading business. The court found that over the course of the scheme, Aguilar had arranged to pay just $1 million in bribes in exchange for a $500 million book of business for Vitol. Seven of Aguilar's co-conspirators have agreed to forfeit $63 million in ill-gotten earnings - a massive 60-fold profit on a $1 million bribery expense. 

Aguilar faces a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison. According to Bloomberg, his bail has been set at $2 million and he has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor until the sentencing hearing. 

Vitol settled with the Department of Justice in a related case in 2020, and it agreed to pay $160 million in penalties. Competitor Gunvor has also acknowledged that it faces an inquiry in connection to alleged corruption in Ecuador. 


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