A CHEMICAL firm’s British arm, based in Ellesmere Port, has been fined £8.5m for bribery.
The American-owned company Innospec, whose UK plant employs 365 staff on Oil Sites Road, Ellesmere Port, admitted paying bribes to Indonesian government officials between 2002 and 2006 to win contracts. It paid them more than £5.7m to prolong the use of the harmful, lead-based fuel, Tetraethy, in petrol engine cars.
Tetraethyl lead fuel additives were phased out in the US and Europe from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The group’s parent company had already agreed a transatlantic plea bargain with the Serious Fraud Office and the Securities Exchange Commission and the Justice Department in the US.
After two years of negotiations, the company pleaded guilty with fines set at £26.3m.
Speaking at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Lord Justice Thomas called Innospec’s corruption ‘systematic and large-scale’ but said he was keen that the fine was not so heavy that it could hit innocent employees in Ellesmere Port.
Bosses confirmed it will not directly affect jobs in the town, adding the new management team now vets business partners more than their predecessors.
Patrick S Williams, Innospec president and chief executive officer, said: “We have taken full responsibility for the company’s past actions and are extremely happy that a line can now be drawn through this deeply regrettable chapter of our history.
“Our new management team has grasped these experiences and has implemented more enhanced and robust compliance procedures to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again.
“Now that these investigations are behind us, I am pleased that we can move forward.”
