Fox Williams yesterday filed securities litigation claims in the High Court (London, UK) against oil and gas production services company, Petrofac Limited, seeking compensation and other relief for current and former investors.
On 12 May 2017, the Serious Fraud Office in the UK announced that it was investigating Petrofac’s activities in connection with allegations of bribery, corruption, and money laundering. Subsequently, Petrofac shares suffered a substantial fall in value.
On 6 February 2019, a senior employee of a Petrofac subsidiary pleaded guilty in the UK to 11 counts of bribery offences. Petrofac shares suffered a further substantial fall in value.
On 1 October 2021, Petrofac pleaded guilty in the UK to multiple charges concerning the payment of bribes totalling £32 million for contracts worth approximately £2.6 billion. Petrofac’s share price has not recovered from the falls in May 2017 and February 2019.
In the claims filed yesterday, Fox Williams is representing clients including global institutional investors and individual retail investors who suffered hundreds of millions of pounds of losses as a result of Petrofac’s misconduct.
Fox Williams’ securities litigation partner Matthew Reach said:
“We are delighted that a broad spectrum of former, and some current, Petrofac shareholders have agreed to join our claim. In earlier criminal proceedings, the Court noted Petrofac ‘accepts that it benefited from its criminal conduct’ and ‘corruption in this case is systemic, serious and grave’.
“Our clients suffered substantial loss because of Petrofac’s behaviour and now we seek redress on their behalf.”
Head of Fox Williams’ securities litigation team, partner Andrew Hill said:
“The legal framework for shareholder compensation is an essential tool for investors to hold listed companies to account for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) failures. The action we are taking is equally a demonstration of the firm’s own efforts to promote ESG values.”
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