Belin McCormick Obtains Reduced Sentence in Foreign Bribery Case
Belin McCormick attorneys recently obtained for their client a sentence in a criminal bribery case that was sharply below the federal sentencing guidelines. The sentence was handed down in a hearing held on January 28, 2010 in federal court in Houston. Belin McCormick partner Mark Weinhardt represented the firm’s client Jim Bob Brown in the hearing.
Mr. Brown was sentenced based upon his plea of guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. While Mr. Brown once faced a sentence exceeding ten years, he was sentenced to only one year and one day.
Mr. Brown had been a long time employee of the international division of Willbros Group, Inc., a publicly-traded pipeline construction company. The conspiracy centered around a scheme to pay bribes to government officials in Nigeria to obtain business there. The scheme included, among other things, the delivery of a suitcase containing $1 million in American currency to a Nigerian “consultant” who would distribute the funds pursuant to the bribery scheme.
Belin McCormick represented Mr. Brown from the outset of the federal investigation in early 2005. With the firm’s advice, Mr. Brown cooperated with the government’s investigation. His cooperation contributed to a $32 million settlement with the government by Willbros, the indictments of three other individuals, and civil settlements by still other individuals.
Under the sentencing guidelines calculation performed by the United States Probation Office, Mr. Brown normally would have faced a sentence ranging from 11 to 14 years in prison. Mr. Brown’s sentence recommended by the guidelines was in fact five years, however, based upon a cap in his sentencing exposure that Belin McCormick negotiated when Mr. Brown entered his guilty plea in 2006.
In an extensive prehearing memorandum and at the hearing, Mr. Weinhardt argued for a sentence substantially below five years based upon Mr. Brown’s assistance to the government, the extreme challenges of corruption and violence that Mr. Brown faced doing business in Nigeria, and the fact that Mr. Brown had lived a productive and exemplary life in every other respect. United States District Court Judge Sim Lake pointed to all of these factors in sentencing Mr. Brown to one year and one day of incarceration. Mr. Brown will be eligible for release approximately 10 months after his sentence commences.
Mr. Weinhardt was assisted in Mr. Brown’s representation by Belin McCormick partner Lance Lange, Belin McCormick associate Will Ortman, and by a Houston attorney, Philip Hilder.
