Last Friday, a former Vitol oil trader was convicted of corruption charges related to bribes in excess of $1 million. He allegedly paid them to officials in Ecuador and Mexico to obtain contracts.

Javier Aguilar is convicted of three counts of foreign bribery, foreign bribery conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. According to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Javier Aguilar had sent bribes from his Geneva employer to officials through a series of intermediaries and shell companies, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a US law that prohibits the payment of

Nonetheless, Aguilar pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said that these consultants paid bribes without his knowledge and that the payment structure was created by a top Vitol executive