Ex-Vitol trader gets four years in US prison for Ecuador, Mexico bribes

A former oil trader at Vitol, one of the world's largest energy trading companies, was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison by a US federal court over his 2024 conviction on corruption charges linked to more than $1 million in bribes paid to officials in Ecuador and Mexico.

Javier Aguilar was found guilty at trial on three counts: foreign bribery, foreign bribery conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. US District Judge Eric Vitaliano imposed the sentence during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.

The case formed part of a broad US Justice Department investigation into commodity trading firms that paid bribes to win business from state-run companies across Latin America.

Prosecutors from the Brooklyn US Attorney's office said Vitol secured and retained more than $500 million worth of business with Mexican and Ecuadorean state oil companies as a result of bribes Aguilar paid between 2015 and 2020. They had sought a 12-year prison term, arguing that a stiff punishment was necessary to deter others.

Aguilar's defence lawyers had urged Vitaliano to spare their client prison time. They said he was "ashamed" of his conduct, had pleaded guilty in a related case brought in Houston federal court, and had agreed to forfeit $7 million. He also faces deportation to Mexico regardless of his sentence.

Vitol itself admitted in December 2020 to bribing officials in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador and paid $164 million to resolve US and Brazilian probes. Rival trader Gunvor in 2024 agreed to pay about $662 million to settle US and Swiss investigations into a scheme to pay bribes to Ecuadorean officials to win business.