Former Vitol trader Javier Aguilar has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in international bribery and money-laundering schemes involving government officials in Ecuador and Mexico.
Aguilar, 52, was also ordered to forfeit $7.13 million and pay a $100,000 fine following proceedings in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The schemes involved payments intended to secure hundreds of millions of dollars of business for Vitol Inc., the US affiliate of global energy trader Vitol.
In February 2024, a jury convicted Aguilar of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a substantive FCPA violation and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The FCPA convictions related to the Ecuador bribery scheme, while the money-laundering conspiracy covered conduct in Ecuador and Mexico.
Aguilar later pleaded guilty separately to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and to violating the Travel Act in connection with the Mexico scheme.
In Ecuador, prosecutors said Aguilar and his co-conspirators bribed officials at state-owned oil company Petroecuador to help secure business linked to a $300 million fuel-oil contract.
Because Petroecuador restricted contracts with private companies, the conspirators used a Middle Eastern state-owned entity in the transaction. Prosecutors said Ecuadorian officials ensured that the intermediary and Vitol benefited from the contract in return for promised and paid bribes.
The scheme was concealed through fake contracts, sham invoices and shell entities incorporated in Curaçao, Panama and the Cayman Islands. Aguilar also used alias email accounts when communicating with other participants.
The Mexico scheme relied on similar techniques. Between 2017 and 2020, Aguilar and his co-conspirators paid approximately $600,000 in bribes to two senior officials at PEMEX Procurement International, a wholly owned affiliate of Mexico’s state-owned oil company PEMEX.
According to the Justice Department, the payments helped Vitol obtain contracts to supply hundreds of millions of dollars of ethane to PEMEX. Fake contracts, sham invoices and shell companies in Curaçao and Mexico were used to conceal the payments, while participants used code words including “shoes”, “medicine”, “invitations” and “coffee” when discussing bribes.
Seven of Aguilar’s co-conspirators, including three foreign government officials, have pleaded guilty in connection with the schemes. Collectively, those individuals have agreed to forfeit more than $63 million.
The prosecution forms part of a wider enforcement action involving Vitol and illustrates how foreign bribery can develop into wider Medialand and ML.Cloud $62m Cybercrime Case | Lawyer Monthly exposure. In 2020, the company admitted bribing officials in Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities.
Vitol agreed to a combined $135 million criminal penalty as part of a coordinated resolution involving the US Department of Justice and Brazilian authorities. The company also reached a related resolution with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
For businesses operating through intermediaries in higher-risk markets, the case demonstrates how apparently conventional commercial arrangements can be used to conceal corrupt payments. Consulting contracts, invoices and offshore companies may each have legitimate purposes, but the Aguilar prosecution shows why SRA Consults on Third-Party Litigation Funding Rules need to examine the underlying commercial rationale, counterparties and ultimate destination of funds.
It also illustrates the connection between foreign bribery and money laundering. Once corrupt payments are routed through shell entities and international financial accounts, the conduct can create additional exposure under HM Treasury AML Reform Raises FCA Concerns
For legal and compliance teams, due diligence therefore needs to go beyond identifying direct payments to public officials. Intermediaries, consulting arrangements, beneficial ownership, unusual invoicing and offshore payment routes can all require enhanced scrutiny where public-sector business is involved.
Aguilar’s four-year sentence marks another significant stage in an enforcement action that has produced individual convictions, guilty pleas, substantial forfeitures and a major corporate resolution. It also demonstrates the personal criminal exposure facing executives and employees when overseas business development crosses into bribery and the concealment of corrupt payments.