Former Chief Executive Officer of PetroTiger Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Charge

Mary Jane Wilmoth

Published On: October 15th, 2015

The former co-chief executive officer (CEO) of PetroTiger Ltd. – a British Virgin Islands oil and gas company with operations in Colombia and formerly with an office in New Jersey – pleaded guilty on June 15, 2015 to conspiring to pay bribes to a foreign government official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Joseph Sigelman, 44, of Miami and the Philippines, pleaded guilty today in the District of New Jersey to conspiracy to violate the FCPA. His trial had commenced on June 1, 2015. Sigelman will be sentenced June 16, 2015.

At his plea hearing, Sigelman admitted to conspiring with co-CEO Knut Hammarskjold, PetroTiger’s former general counsel Gregory Weisman, and others to make illegal payments of $333,500 to David Duran, an employee of the Colombian national oil company, Ecopetrol.

Sigelman admitted to making the payments in exchange for Duran’s assistance in securing a $45 million oil services contract for PetroTiger. Sigelman is the third former PetroTiger executive to plead guilty in the case. On Nov. 8, 2013, Weisman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and to commit wire fraud. On Feb. 18, 2014, Hammarskjold pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and to commit wire fraud.

The case was brought to the attention of the department through a voluntary disclosure by PetroTiger, which fully cooperated with the department’s investigation. Based on PetroTiger’s voluntary disclosure, cooperation, and remediation, among other factors, the department declined to prosecute PetroTiger.