Guilty Sentenced in Operation Navigator Case

A U.K. court has sentenced four men found guilty of corruption in oil and gas contracts. The cases were prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office whose investigation began in 2008.

The case, codenamed Operation Navigator, was tried at Southwark Crown Court, where the defendants were found guilty on January 25, 2012.

Sentence terms ran from one to five years. Andrew Ryban of Berkshire was sentenced to five years imprisonment on each count. Ronald Saunders of Hampshire will serve three years and six months per count. Philip Hammond of Brussels will serve three years on each count. Finally, Barry Smith, also of Hampshire, was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment, suspended for 18 months and 300 hours of unpaid work, according to a statement from the Serious Fraud Office.

Rybak and Hammond have also been disqualified from acting as company directors for a period of ten years. Confiscation actions are to be undertaken against Ryban, Saunders and Hammond.

The contracts related to a series of high-value oil and gas engineering projects between 2001 and 2009 in Iran, Egypt, Russia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

For more information about this case, see Four Convicted of Corruption.