Britons charged for bribing Nigerian revenue officers

After two-year probe of Swift Technical Energy Solutions Ltd., which is a Nigerian subsidiary of the Swift Group companies four British nationals, were on Monday charged at a London criminal court for conspiring to bribe officials  of the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue and the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue, to lower the taxes their workers paid in the country.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office in an e-mail said the four accused, three men and one woman were former employee of the company.

According to the prosecutors, the defendants, a former chief financial officer, tax manager, financial controller and area director for Nigeria, allegedly paid a total of 180,000 pounds (N46 million) in bribes in 2008 and 2009 to agents of the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue and the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue.

The bribes were paid to avoid, reduce or delay paying taxes on behalf of the oil- and gas-industry workers whom Swift sent to Nigeria, the SFO said. The case was transferred to a higher criminal court for a hearing on Feb. 22 and the defendants were released on bail.