Following the news that a former Business Unit Director of Innospec Ltd, David Turner, appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, charged with conspiring to make corrupt payments to public officials in Indonesia and Iraq, the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) announced yesterday that two further Innospec executives have now been charged with associated corruption offences.

Along with Turner, it is alleged that Dennis Kerrison and Paul Jennings, both former CEO’s of Innospec, gave, or agreed to give, corrupt payments to public officials and other agents of the Governments of Indonesia and/or Iraq as inducements to secure, or as rewards for having secured, contracts from those Governments for the supply of products, including Tetraethyl Lead, by Innospec.  The alleged offences took place variously between 2002 and 2008.

Turner and Jennings are additionally accused of conspiracy to defraud Ethyl Corporation by making payments to public officials and other agents of the Government of Iraq as inducements to ensure that tests on MMT, a competitor product manufactured by Ethyl Corporation, conducted by or on behalf of the Government of Iraq concluded with an ‘unfavourable’ assessment of that product.

Last year, Colorado based Innospec agreed to pay the U.S. authorities $27.5 million and the U.K. authorities $12.7 million, and pleaded guilty to 12 U.S. criminal counts (including violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”)), having admitted to bribing Iraqi oil officials, defrauding the United Nations through its Oil for Food Program and selling chemicals to Cuban power plants in violation of a U.S. embargo.  Earlier this year, Jennings also settled charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), without admitting or denying the allegations that he had authorised the speciality chemicals company to pay bribes to Iraqi and Indonesian officials.

The cases have been sent to the Crown Court at Southwark, where Turner will appear on 2 November 2011 and both Kerrison and Jennings will appear on 6 January 2012.