Brendan Kelly QC & Vivienne Tanchel Secure Acquittal in North Sea Gas Corruption Conspiracy

Mr M, represented by Brendan Kelly QC and Vivienne Tanchel, instructed by Cindy Dorrington and Steve Sharp of Bivonas Law LLP, was acquitted yesterday after a 12 week trial of conspiracy to make corrupt payments.  Mr M was accused of agreeing with his alleged co-conspirators to corrupt a procurement manager to ensure that his client, a large world wide logistics provider, won a contract for the provision of logistics to a large North Sea gas exploration project.

Mr M is a successful consultant in the oil and gas industry who had successfully assisted his client in winning a contract to provide logistic services to the large and innovative North Sea gas project. It was asserted by the prosecution that he agreed with the project’s procurement manager and his client’s  business development manager to pay the procurement manager for her to ensure that his client’s bid was successful in winning the contract.

The Serious Fraud Office relied on email exchanges between the parties which it asserted were incriminating and was also successful in its arguments for the guilty pleas of alleged co-conspirators to be placed before the jury.

Notwithstanding this, after 4 days deliberation the jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict.