Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Oil Man Demands $6 Million He Says|BP & Others Paid In Bribes In Kazakhstan

WASHINGTON (CN) - Oil man Jack Grynberg and three of his companies demand more than $6 million from BP Corp. and other oil firms: "Plaintiffs' proportionate share of bribes charged unwilling and unknowingly and paid to foreign nationals [in Kazakhstan] to secure various oil rights from joint ventures in which Plaintiffs have an interest."

Plaintiffs also seek multiple damages based on the RICO act and other collateral damages.

The complaint states: "This is a case about Statoil's, BP's and BG's role - and the role of its executive leadership - in a massive scheme involving illegal bribes paid to various top officials of the Government of Kazakhstan by several oil companies, and the scheme to cover up those bribes from public disclosure through a series of misrepresentations. There have been many victims of these bribes and their cover-up - beginning with the People of Kazakhstan who have been denied their right to the benefits of the resources extracted from their land and the right to the honest services of their governmental officials of the bribes and the cover-up. The Grynberg Plaintiffs are another group of victims."

It continues: "Defendants have engaged in criminal bribery schemes, and in attempting to cover up those bribes, have lied to the Plaintiffs, withheld evidence, with trickery have attempted to force Plaintiffs, without their knowledge, consent or approval, to pay a portion of those illegal bribes out of the profits that the corporate Plaintiffs should have shared in".

Kazakhstan is a virtual fiefdom of its President Nursultan Nazarbayev, generally agreed to be one of the most corrupt and vicious dictators in the world. His family has been defendants in numerous lawsuits alleging lurid misdeeds, some amusing for their effrontery, many horrifying and revolting.

Defendants in this case include BP PLC of Great Britain dba BP Corp. North America, Statoilhydro of Norway, BG Group PLC of England, BG North America LLC of Texas, John Browne of London, Helge Lund and Eivind Reiten of Norway, and Robert Wilson and Frank Chapman of Berkshire, England.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...