A Connecticut oil and gas trader, Glenn Oztemel, was convicted on Thursday for orchestrating a nearly eight-year bribery scheme involving officials at Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras.
U.S. prosecutors revealed that Oztemel, 65, from Westport, Connecticut, paid more than $1 million in bribes to secure business for two Connecticut trading companies, Arcadia Fuels and Freepoint Commodities.
A Bridgeport jury found Oztemel guilty on all seven counts, which included charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and violating the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Along with Oztemel, Brazilian-Italian oil and gas broker Eduardo Innecco faced accusations of bribing officials to win contracts and gain insider information about Petrobras’ fuel oil business. Prosecutors said Oztemel’s bribes were split between Petrobras officials in Brazil and Rodrigo Berkowitz, a Petrobras fuel trader in Houston.
The defendants used coded language like “breakfast,” “breakfast servings,” and “freight deviation” to discuss bribes and their amounts, according to the prosecution. The scheme ran from 2010 to 2018, during which Oztemel worked at both Arcadia and Freepoint before retiring in 2020.
“We are very disappointed in today’s verdict,” said Nelson Boxer, Oztemel’s lawyer, in an email. “Glenn has had an unblemished record for 40 years in the oil industry, and we will continue to fight to clear his good name.”
Innecco is currently awaiting extradition from France to face charges in the U.S. Meanwhile, Oztemel’s brother, Gary Oztemel, pleaded guilty to a related money laundering charge in June.
Freepoint, based in Stamford, Connecticut, entered a deferred prosecution agreement in December and agreed to pay over $98 million to settle related U.S. bribery charges. Brazilian authorities had investigated Freepoint employees as part of Operation Car Wash, a years-long probe into Petrobras-related bribery.
Rodrigo Berkowitz, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge in Brooklyn in February 2019, has yet to be sentenced, according to court records.
