Seatrium investigated over corruption by Singapore authorities

CPIB said in a statement on Wednesday evening that “acting on information received” it had begun investigations into Seatrium and individuals that work for the company.

Seatrium was formed at the end of February by a merger of Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), initially operating under the Sembcorp Marine banner it has rebranded as Seatrium. Both companies have been dogged by corruption cases in Brazil going back more than a decade.

Seatrium suspended trading of its shares on the Singapore Exchange on Thursday morning and followed up with a statement related to the CPIB investigations.

The yard referred to previous announcements made by Sembcorp Marine in relation to the Brazilian authorities 2015 Operation Car Wash corruption investigations, related to oil and gas offshore contracts with companies in Brazil.

Seatrium said: “The company believes that this relates to events that occurred prior to 2015 and to the Sembcorp Marine group in existence at that time. Those events predate the merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine which only took place in February 2023. The company is unable to comment further at this stage as the investigations are still ongoing.”

On 28 April Seatrium said Brazil’s Comptroller General of the Union had suspended preliminary administrative proceedings for investigations against its Brazilian subsidiary Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz Ltda.

Related:Seatrium is born from Keppel O&M and Sembcorp Marine

Keppel O&M was also involved in corruption in Brazil and was fined $422m in global resolution between Brazil, Singapore and the US related to $55m in bribes paid between 2001 and 2014. In January this year Keppel O&M said it had paid in full a further BRL343.6m in fines and damages.

Six former senior management staff of Keppel O&M were also given stern warnings by the CPIB in relation to the bribe payments. The Singapore authorities said they had difficulty in gathering evidence for the case in including key witnesses overseas being unwilling to come to Singapore to testify.