On December 15, 2021, the Serious Fraud Office announced that it was able to secure a £140,000 confiscation order against David Lufkin, the former Global Head of Sales for Petrofac Limited, an oilfield services provider headquartered in London.
In February of 2019, Lufkin pleaded guilty to eleven counts of bribery after the SFO accused him violating Section 1 of the Bribery Act 2010 for offering or facilitating a $2.2 million and $4 million bribe payment to officials in Iraq and $45 million in improper payment in Saudi Arabia in order to secure engineering and construction projects for Petrofac between 2012 and 2015. In January 14, 2021, Lufkin pleaded guilty to three additional counts of bribery in connection with approximately $30 million in improper payments made to secure engineering and construction project for Petrofac in Abu Dhabi between 2012 and 2018. After pleading guilty, Lufkin continued his cooperation with SFO investigators.
In September of 2021, the SFO charged Petrofac Limited with seven separate offenses for failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017 at the conclusion of a four-year investigation into suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering by Petrofac, its subsidiaries, officer, agents and employees. On October 4, 2021, Petrofac Limited pleaded guilty to seven counts for failing to prevent bribery and was ordered to pay a £47,197,640 fine, confiscation of £22,836,985, as well as £7 million in costs to the SFO. At the same time, Lufkin received a two year custodial sentence that, according to the SFO, was suspended for 18 months.