British anti-corruption investigators accused their US counterparts of cheating on them during a dispute over a criminal investigation that threatened cooperation between countries and led the UK to complain that “we look like fools.”
The extraordinary dispute is uncovered in a series of confidential exchanges, watched by The Guardian, between the upper levels of the UK Serious Fraud Office (OFS), which processes large-scale bribery and corruption, and the Department of Justice of the United States.
The correspondence shows how US prosecutors allegedly went behind the back of their British counterparts to hinder their efforts to bring a key suspect to trial in the UK..
The dispute was particularly delicate because Jeremy Wright, the then UK attorney general, had personally authorized the prosecution of the suspect, Saman Ahsani, accused of paying large bribes in an international conspiracy.
The dispute centered on one of the OFS’s largest investigations, which began five years ago when investigators began examining a bribery scandal involving Unaoil, a Monaco-based consulting firm. Ahsani was one of three family members who controlled Unaoil.
Unaoil was alleged to have paid bribes to officials around the world to secure contracts in the energy industry on behalf of multinational companies, including British engineering company Rolls-Royce.
The documents show how top OFS officials believed the Americans had intervened in their investigation, without their knowledge, and set them apart to bring Ahsani, one of the main suspects, to their own trial.
In 2017, Wright, as attorney general, gave the OFS permission to prosecute Ahsani and others who had been accused of playing a significant role in the bribery scheme. Your consent was required in such cases.
The OFS issued an order to extradite Ahsani from Italy to the United Kingdom, so that he could be tried in London.
However, to the dismay of the OFS, US prosecutors began their own attempt to bring Ahsani to the United States to face trial. Prosecutors, without telling the OFS, held three days of talks with Ahsani in 2018 to see if she would make a deal to admit her role in the bribery as part of a plea bargaining agreement.
On April 16, 2018, Alun Milford, then a senior OFS official, emailed a counterpart at the Justice Department to tell him that the move “has gone very wrong for our senior management team.” People want to know when / if they can trust the Justice Department. “
According to Milford, the Justice Department had led the OFS to believe that the Americans had only a “brief report” on the Unaoil allegations, and expected that the British would bring prosecutions before them. The OFS had passed a “significant” amount of evidence to the Americans, he added, as the British believed that the Americans had given them a clear opportunity to bring Ahsani to justice.
Milford argued that the Americans were “prepared to go behind the backs of their international partners” and allow suspects to choose where they were tried in hopes of ensuring a better outcome. He added: “We seem silly when we say (as we still do) that we have a good relationship of trust” with the Justice Department.
According to Milford, the Americans had asked the OFS to “back down” because, they argued, they had a better chance of convicting Ahsani and persuading him to reveal evidence of others who had been involved in the bribery.
On April 27, 2018, Matthew Wagstaff, another senior OFS official, told the Justice Department that Wright fully supported the OFS in its attempt to bring Ahsani to the UK. The attorney general “was not willing” to withdraw his approval to prosecute him, he wrote.
Wagstaff warned Americans that his conduct was at risk of causing real harm to relations between the two countries and “makes us question how far we can trust” the unit within the Justice Department investigating the bribery.
Hours later, in what appeared to be a threat by the Americans to suspend cooperation in other investigations, a senior Justice Department official responded: “As I discover what this means for the broader relationship, we will press pause in our other cases so you can tell us how you want to proceed. “
Wagstaff replied: “I may not have tried as such, but that presents itself as a threat to sever the relationship with the OFS entirely if we do not submit to their wishes regarding Saman. [Ahsani]. I would suggest that it is not a reasonable or rational response.
Four minutes later, the senior Justice Department official replied: “Of course, it was not a threat. YOU are the one who threatened us by saying that you need to see how our action in this case affects our broader relationship and whether you can trust us. “
Wagstaff then told his OFS colleagues that he had spoken to the senior Justice Department official. “His main point was that they were dismayed because we viewed their conduct as ‘treason’ and that he had questioned whether we could trust them, especially given all the cooperation they had offered to date in a variety of cases.”
Last year, it was revealed that the OFS had abandoned its investigation into Ahsani in the UK, but was unable to explain why to the public. The OFS investigation ended because Ahsani had been extradited to the US, where he was charged.
Last year, Ahsani and her brother, Cyrus, pleaded guilty in a Texas court to facilitating the payment of multi-million dollar bribes to officials in nine countries between 1999 and 2016.
The OFS said it did not “confirm the reports or comment on specific conversations that allegedly took place between the OFS and other law enforcement agencies.”
A spokesperson added: “We have a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with our law enforcement partners in the United States and cooperate at the strategic and operational levels. This was exemplified by our close cooperation during the investigation and the unprecedented global agreement with Airbus regarding the company’s corrupt historical conduct. “
The Justice Department said it had a close relationship with the OFS, adding that this successful cooperation was exemplified in prosecutions. He said he had thanked the OFS for its “significant assistance” when the Ahsanis pleaded guilty in the United States.
Last week, it emerged that the OFS was facing an investigation after a judge criticized its director, Lisa Osofsky, for the “flattering” text messages she received during the Unaoil investigation from a private investigator seeking to secure more sentences. favorable for your customers.
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