By Joel Schectman 

The trial of former PetroTiger Chief Executive Joseph Sigelman came to an abrupt end Monday morning after the businessman admitted bribing a Colombian official to win an oil-services contract valued at $39 million.

Mr. Sigelman pleaded guilty in federal court in Camden, N.J., to charges that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring to bribe an employee of Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA. Mr. Sigelman admitted that he turned a blind eye to the fact that employee David Duran worked for Ecopetrol.

An attorney for Mr. Duran has said previously Mr. Duran maintains his innocence and says the payments weren't bribes. The FCPA makes it a crime to bribe foreign officials to win business. The government considers Mr. Duran an official because of his work at the state-owned company.

The unexpected turn of events came as the bribery trial was about to enter its third week. The government reached the agreement with Mr. Sigelman after a key witness, former PetroTiger general counsel Gregory Weisman, told the court last week that he had given false testimony regarding the demands that authorities had made as part of his cooperation agreement. Mr. Weisman has pleaded guilty to FCPA violations and kickback charges.

Mr. Sigelman's plea deal calls for him to receive a sentence of between probation to one year in jail. Mr. Sigelman was charged with FCPA violations, money laundering and taking kickbacks and faced more than 20 years in jail if convicted, according to the Justice Department. Mr. Sigelman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the FCPA, but the other charges were dismissed, according to a court transcript. The judge will sentence Mr. Sigelman on Tuesday.

William Jacobson, a former federal FCPA prosecutor, said the plea agreement "sounds quite generous."

"It sounds like the government had proof problems at the end of the day, " said Mr. Jacobson, who is now an attorney at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

The guilty plea marks an unexpected end of a closely watched trial. The case was seen as a test of the government's ability to win foreign bribery cases in before a jury.

Federal prosecutors have settled numerous overseas bribery cases with corporations in recent years, extracting record penalties and admissions of wrongdoing from companies including Alstom SA and Avon Products Inc. But the PetroTiger case was the first FCPA charge to face a jury decision in years, after federal prosecutors suffered a series of stinging setbacks in other foreign bribery trials, including two mistrials and a guilty verdict that was tossed by a judge because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Last week, a key witness for the defense, Mr. Weisman, testified that the government had pressured him to remain as the general counsel for another company Mr. Sigelman ran, after he became an undercover informant. When pressed by Mr. Sigelman's defense attorney on the conflict of interest, Mr. Weisman said, according to court transcripts, "I was cooperating with the government and was told I couldn't just go and resign."

But several days later, he admitted during further cross examination that this statement was false. "I had misremembered, a couple days ago," Mr. Weisman said.

The defense used this admission to attack Mr. Weisman's credibility last Thursday. "You realize that a lot of your testimony is supported solely by your word, right?" asked William Price, a defense counsel for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.

Shortly after the admission on Thursday morning, the two sides asked that the court break for the week.

Write to Joel Schectman at joel.schectman@wsj.com

Access Investor Kit for Ecopetrol SA

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=COC04PA00016

Access Investor Kit for Ecopetrol SA

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US2791581091

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024 Click Here for more Ecopetrol Charts.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024 Click Here for more Ecopetrol Charts.