Allen & Overy's former Head of Amsterdam and Global Co-head of Corporate has been charged with corruption.

Sietze Hepkema retired from A&O back in 2011 and joined Dutch multinational SBM Offshore as Chief Governance and Compliance Officer in 2012. He led an investigation into a bribery scandal involving his company's biggest client, Brazilian oil and gas giant Petrobas, but has been accused of withholding crucial information. He has now been charged with "unjust enrichment" by Brazil's Public Prosecutor - he was paid a total of US$9m by SBM until he stepped down from his role last year to join the company's supervisory board.

The Brazilian authorities accuse Hepkema of attempting to mislead the authorities in Holland, the US and Brazil. He is one of a dozen people charged just before Christmas. He faces criminal charges, although it's not clear whether Hepkema risks a spell of bend and stretch for Big Ronaldo in a Rio cell or just financial ruin if convicted. In any event, it must have put a bit of a dampner on his holidays.

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Hepkema has described the charges as "frivolous". He remains on SBM's supervisory board and the company stands by him. It released a statement saying that he "joined the Company in May 2012 to establish a robust compliance culture" and that it believes "the allegations are without merit, based on what it has heard so far". Not exactly the most ringing of endorsements...

A&O said that it wouldn't comment as the charges relate to events which happened after Hepkema left the firm.


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