Total Company Convicted for Bribing 'Individuals Linked to Mehdi Hashemi'

A court in Paris on Friday convicted the oil company Total for bribing individuals introduced by 'Mehdi Hashemi' in a case related to a contract with Iran from 1997, ordering the company to pay 500,000 euros. According to Reuters, Total was found guilty of paying 30 million dollars under the guise of 'consulting contracts' to facilitate an investment agreement in the South Pars gas fields two decades ago. The Paris prosecutor's office stated that this was essentially a cover for 'bribery'. Court documents indicate that between 1995 and 2004, at the request of Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, intermediaries from Total made illegal payments to individuals introduced by Mr. Hashemi to assist in securing the contract. Patrick Pouyanne, the CEO of Total, stated in a press release following the court's ruling that the company would no longer pursue the matter since none of the individuals mentioned in the case are alive. Mr. Pouyanne added, 'Anyone who knows Christophe de Margerie, the former CEO of Total, knows that he was never involved in any financial corruption.' He further stated, 'Given the unique circumstances of this case, which has already been judged in the U.S. and where none of the involved parties can defend themselves, Total does not intend to pursue it.' Reuters adds that this is not the first legal case related to Total's activities in Iran. In 2013, Total agreed to pay 398 million dollars to settle a lawsuit in U.S. courts regarding bribery by the company to secure oil and gas contracts in Iran. This was the first instance of cooperation between French and American law enforcement and judicial authorities in a significant bribery case involving officials of a foreign country. At that time, the Paris prosecutor's office recommended that Total and its then-CEO be prosecuted in France as well. Christophe de Margerie, the then-CEO of Total, was killed in a plane crash in 2014. Mehdi Hashemi's name was also mentioned in the case involving the Norwegian company Statoil, where there were allegations of bribery by the Norwegian company to a firm led by Abbas Yazdanpanah. He has not been personally accused in this matter in the UK. Abbas Yazdanpanah was kidnapped in the UAE in 2013 and remains missing. Previously, Mehdi Hashemi's lawyers stated that based on reports from the Ministry of Intelligence during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami and the sixth parliament's investigative committee, Mehdi Hashemi had committed 'no violations' in the Statoil case. Mehdi Hashemi was arrested at the airport upon his return to Iran on September 24, 2012, after being informed of the charges and presenting himself to the prosecutor's office. He was released on bail after nearly three months in custody on December 17, 2012. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and reported to prison to serve his sentence on August 9, 2015.