Norwegian fertilizer firm Yara International fined for 3 corruption cases

The Norwegian chemical fertilizer company Yara International has been ordered to pay a fine of 295 million Norwegian kroner (48 million U.S. dollars) for three gross corruption cases abroad, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported on Wednesday. The Yara International issued a statement on Wednesday, accepting the fine for the bribery cases the company committed in Libya, India and Russia. After a prolonged investigation, the Norwegian anti-corruption agency Okokrim has come to the conclusion that a large sum of bribe money was paid by Yara International over a period from 2004 and 2009 to senior officials in Libya and India and suppliers in Russia, according to the NTB report. The company will have to pay 270 million Norwegian kroner as corporate penalty in addition to confiscation of proceeds amounting to 25 million kroner. Okokrim is an abbreviation for the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime. Investigations have uncovered "unacceptable and disappointing behaviour," said Yara International in the statement. The fine is for irregularities linked to the establishment of Lifeco in Libya and an unrealized project in India and Yara's activities in Switzerland while the confiscation is related to earlier phosphate deliveries, said the company. "The penalty is severe, but we accept it," said Bernt Reitan, chairman of the Board of Yara International ASA. Yara, one of the world's biggest fertilizer firms Headquartered in Oslo, capital of Norway and with presence in more than 50 countries, Yara International is one of the world's largest fertilizer producer, with a revenue of 84.5 billion Norwegian kroner in 2012 from sales in the global market.