U.S. confirms charges against Chad officials in Griffiths Energy corruption case

CALGARY — A decade-old corruption case involving a Canadian junior oil company that bribed officials in Chad to try to gain access to lucrative oil plays in the north-central African nation is making news again.

The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed an indictment against Chad’s former ambassador to the United States and Canada and Chad’s former deputy chief of mission for the U.S. and Canada, charging them with soliciting and accepting a $2-million bribe and conspiring to launder the bribe payment.

Naeem Tyab, a citizen of Canada and co-founder of Griffiths Energy International Inc., is also charged in the indictment for allegedly arranging for the bribe to be paid to the ambassador’s wife, a co-defendant, in early 2011 via a sham contract for consulting services that she never actually provided.

Tyab was arrested in New York in 2019 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He agreed to forfeit criminal proceeds of about US$27 million. The remaining three defendants remain at large, according to the Justice news release. 

Griffiths Energy agreed in a Calgary courtroom in 2013 to pay $10.35 million in fines after pleading guilty to bribing the Chadian officials. It changed its name and was later acquired by another company.

It admitted it drafted an agreement to pay the Chadian ambassador to Canada — who lived in Washington at the time — $2 million in consulting fees in an attempt to have the deal approved. A new management team that took over at Griffiths Energy during the summer of 2011 reported the deal to authorities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2021.

The Canadian Press