Total is set to face trial in France over corruption allegations relating to Iranian contracts dating from the 1990s and early 2000s, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, reports The Financial Times.
The French oil major alongside two Iranian middle men will be charged with “corruption of foreign public officials”, said a spokesperson on Tuesday, adding that the trial was unlikely to start until 2015.
The trial is a major headache for a group under pressure from the dramatic fall in oil prices and still reeling from the sudden death of its chief executive Christophe de Margerie last month in a plane crash in Moscow.
Last year, following a French and US investigation, Total agreed to pay $398m to settle US charges alleging it paid bribes to secure Iranian contracts. In return the US agreed not to prosecute Total for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
According to the DoJ last year, Total paid around $60m in bribes between 1995 and 2004 to intermediaries chosen by an Iranian official who served as the chairman of a state-owned engineering company.
In exchange, he used his influence to help Total obtain lucrative concessions in two big energy projects – Sirri A and E and South Pars, one of the world’s largest natural gasfields.
The DoJ said that Total mischaracterised the payments as “business development expenses” when they were, in fact, bribes designed to corruptly influence a foreign official.
The company is now facing trial in France for similar issues. Last year Total said it hoped the US fine would draw a line under the issue and that the company had “not committed any offence under applicable French law”.
Mr de Margerie was head of Middle East exploration and production at Total when the bribery was alleged to have taken place. He would have been due to stand trial, said a spokesperson, were it not for his death.