UIB sold reinsurance services to state-backed insurers covering parts of the Ecuadorian public sector, including the state water and electricity companies between 2013 and 2016, the SFO said. The broker is accused of £3 million to intermediaries who then bribed an Ecuadorian official in exchange for business
UK fraud cops have charged an insurance broker with bribery, after a four-year probe into alleged corruption involving state-run insurance contracts in Ecuador.
The Serious Fraud Office accused United Insurance Brokers Ltd. of failing to prevent associates from bribing state officials, according to a statement on Thursday.
Representatives of the firm, which is a registered broker at the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, will appear at a London court on May 7 to hear the charges.
UIB sold reinsurance services to state-backed insurers covering parts of the Ecuadorian public sector, including the state water and electricity companies between 2013 and 2016, the SFO said. The broker is accused of £3 million to intermediaries who then bribed an Ecuadorian official in exchange for business.
“British companies have a duty to prevent the harm caused by bribery when doing business at home and abroad” SFO Director Nick Ephgrave said in the statement. “The SFO remains committed to stamping out international bribery wherever it may occur.”
The investigation into UIB has been ongoing since 2021. A handful of London insurance firms were being investigated for bribery and corruption relating to Ecuadorian state insurance contracts by the SFO in 2022, Bloomberg previously reported.
The case is the ninth to be publicly announced since Ephgrave, a former police chief and the first non-lawyer to lead the agency, took over the SFO in 2023.