SBM Offshore faces another corruption probe

French law association Sherpa has called on the country’s prosecutors to open an investigation into alleged corruption related to the activities of Dutch floater specialist SBM Offshore.

Sherpa said it had filed a request asking France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation into SBM Offshore’s alleged corruption, money laundering and concealment of stolen goods “in order to shed light on the involvement of French personalities in widespread corrupt practices that would have been used by the multinational in most of the areas where it operated.”

SBM Offshore has been involved in several international corruption scandals, losing millions of dollars on settlements, including Brazil where it was charged with paying bribes to win contracts with Petrobras.

Most recently, three of its Swiss subsidiaries were ordered to pay over $7m for failing to prevent the bribery of foreign public officials in Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.