US Court awards CITGO Petroleum over $340 mln in bribery case
July 24 (Reuters) -Venezuela-owned oil refiner CITGO Petroleum said on Wednesday it was awarded more than $340 million in damages and interest by a U.S. court in a bribery probe.
Earlier this month, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas held CITGO's former contractor Petroleum Logistics Service (PLS) and its founder Jose Manuel Gonzalez Testino liable for fraud, breach of contract and civil violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The U.S. refiner had launched a litigation in 2020 against the contractors, citing that they tried to corruptly secure contracts with the company and its Venezuelan parent through bribes.
Testino, PLS and several affiliated companies paid millions of dollars in bribes to then-CITGO employees to secure highly lucrative contracts for the sale and transportation of various goods and equipment, CITGO said.
"PLS and the affiliated companies then charged CITGO grossly inflated prices, fees, and expenses for those goods and services, and concealed that conduct through bribing a number of CITGO's former employees," the company said in a statement.
On July 16, the U.S. courts granted CITGO over $254 million in trebled damages, and over $89 million in prejudgment interest.
Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona
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