Samsung Heavy Industries Company Limited (“Samsung Heavy Industries,” “SHI,” or “the Company”), headquartered in South Korea, is an engineering company that provides shipbuilding and offshore platform construction services. Samsung Heavy Industries has offices all around the world, including one branch office in Houston, Texas.
According to the DOJ, from 2007 to 2013, Samsung Heavy Industries corruptly paid Brazilian foreign oficials to retain business in Brazil. Allegedly, SHI made bribes to executives at Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobas (“Petrobas”), a Brazilian oil corporation, to obtain a shipbuilding contract with a Houston-based Chartering Company that sought to charter the ship to Petrobas. Specifically, in 2007, SHI and the Chartering Company entered into an option agreement which gave the Chartering Company the right to purchase SHI’s new offshore oildrillship. The DOJ alleged that “Samsung Heavy Industries understood that Chartering Company would only exercise its option to purchase the Option Drillship [from SHI] if Chartering Company secured a contract with Petrobas to charter the Option Drillship to Petrobas.” To ensure that outcome, SHI allegedly made bribes to officials at Petrobas through two intermediary companies.