On April 14, 2026, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a forfeiture order against Daniel Bergonzi for his role in a scheme involving the payment of bribes to a Mexican government official. In June 2025, Bergonzi, a dual citizen of the United States and Italy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and the wire fraud statute. According to the Information, Bergonzi conspired with at least seven others to bribe a foreign official. As part of his plea agreement, which was until recently under seal, Bergonzi agreed he obtained $1,019,757.60 from the bribery scheme, and that the factual basis of the guilty plea supported forfeiture of that amount.
According to a criminal information filed in January 2025, Bergonzi resided in Texas and served as the Vice President of Sales for an unnamed equipment company at the time of the offense. Bergonzi allegedly conspired with seven unnamed co-conspirators from approximately January 2020 to 2023 to “pay millions of dollars in bribes” through an unnamed intermediary to a senior executive at PEMEX Exploración y Producción (“PEP”), the wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos Mexicanos (“PEMEX”), Mexico’s state-owned oil company. In exchange for the bribe payments, the equipment company was allegedly awarded a contract with PEMEX in December 2021 that was worth more than $500 million. According to the Information, under the contract the intermediary company received commissions from the equipment company, some portion of which the intermediary company paid to Bergonzi as kickbacks between approximately April 2023 and July 2023. The Information stated that Bergonzi did not disclose these kickbacks to the equipment company.
The order imposing Bergonzi’s money judgment was filed just weeks after Texas businessman Alfonso Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA for his role in the bribery scheme. On March 31, 2026, Wilson pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas to conspiring with at least five others to pay bribes to a PEP official to secure a contract worth approximately $540 million for an unnamed equipment company in December 2021. As part of his plea agreement, Wilson agreed, among other things, that he received $383,896 for his role in the scheme and stipulated to forfeiting that amount. Wilson is currently scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, 2026.
Agreed Order Imposing Money Judgment | Information