OSLO (Reuters) — Norwegian police have indicted four former executives of fertilizer maker Yara with paying $8 million in bribes in Libya and India.
Police said that Yara executives, including its former chief executive officer and top legal counsel, bribed officials, including the family of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s oil minister and the family of a financial adviser in India’s chemicals and fertilizers ministry. They allege that the executives committed gross corruption, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
The national police’s economic crime unit said it had indicted former CEO Thorleif Enger, former chief legal officer Kendrick Wallace, former head of upstream activities Tor Holba and former deputy CEO and current PotashCorp director Daniel Clauw for either directly negotiating the payments or consenting as the firm tried to establish joint ventures in the two countries.
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Enger, Holba and former chief financial officer Hallgeir Storvik were first detained and charged in May 2012. Yara said the charges against Storvik have been dropped.
The formal indictment means the case will now go to trial.
Yara, one of the world’s biggest fertilizer companies and the owner of a plant in Saskatchewan, was fined $48.5 million in the case earlier in the month. The firm acknowledged that improper payments had been made and accepted the fine.
However, it said all persons involved in the case “are considered innocent until proven by a court to be otherwise.”
Enger and Holba have denied all charges. Wallace and Clauw could not immediately be reached for comment. PotashCorp declined to comment.
Holba, the only one of the four to remain with Yara, has been placed on paid leave.
Yara launched an internal investigation in 2011 because of irregularities that might have occurred before 2008 and then contacted the police.
The case has attracted strong criticism from some Yara shareholders, including the Norwegian government and the state-owned pension fund Folketrygdfondet.
