Sentencing takes place in Unaoil trial – one of the largest corruption cases ever brought by the SFO

Gillian Jones QC and Faras Baloch (together with Michael Brompton QC and Thomas Daniel) prosecuted Basil Al Jarah who was sentenced on 8 October 2020 to three years and four months’ imprisonment for paying in excess of $17m in bribes to dishonestly secure approximately $1.7bn worth of contracts in post-occupation Iraq. Al Jarah, Unaoil’s former Iraq partner, conspired with others to pay millions of dollars in bribes to public officials at the South Oil Company and Iraqi Ministry of Oil. These bribes secured contracts for Unaoil and its clients to construct oil pipelines, offshore mooring buoys in the Persian Gulf, and other infrastructure projects, collectively worth just over $1.7bn. These contracts formed part of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil’s ‘Master Plan’ to rebuild its oil export capacity and revitalise the Iraqi economy after years of war and occupation.