Japanese firm to pay $55M criminal penalty HOUSTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A Japanese trading firm will pay a $54.6 million criminal penalty for its role in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Marubeni Corp. of Tokyo was accused under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of participating in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction contracts. The U.S. Justice Department filed a deferred prosecution agreement and a criminal information against Marubeni in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Marubeni was charged with one count of conspiracy, and one count of aiding and abetting violations of the corrupt practices act. Federal prosecutors alleged Marubeni was hired along with United Kingdom lawyer Jeffrey Tesler as agents by the four-company TSKJ joint venture to help it get and retain contracts between 1995 and 2004 worth billions of dollars to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, by bribing Nigerian government officials. TSKJ was comprised of Technip S.A., based in France; Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V.; Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. of Houston and JGC Corp. of Japan. Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Marubeni is to cooperate in investigations and retain a consultant to ensure it complies with the law. If Marubeni abides by the agreement's terms, the department will dismiss the criminal information after two years. "With today's resolution, the department has held accountable all five of the corporations that participated in the massive, decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials in connection with the so-called Bonny Island project," Mythili Raman, principal deputy assistant attorney general, said in a release. As a result of this extensive investigation, the department and our partners have obtained more than $1.7 billion in penalties and forfeiture orders from the joint venture partners, their agents and individuals who sought illegally to obtain the Bonny Island contracts. Several individuals also have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.