This is a story of bribery, suspected secret shareholders, and an audacious attempt by oil giant Exxon to bypass US anti-corruption laws. It is a story
of how the American company...appears to have turned a blind eye to earlier corruption when buying an oil license in the impoverished West African country of Liberia. Finally, this is a story of how the US can help end corruption by requiring that oil companies report in detail what they pay to governments...[T]he company from which Exxon...[bought] Block 13 – Broadway/Peppercoast (BCP) – may have been owned by former government officials, and the license was originally granted through bribery...But Exxon was prepared, and arrived in London with a plan it thought would allow the company to buy Block 13 while skirting US anti-corruption laws. This would be done by having a third company act as a go-between, buying Block 13 from BCP and then selling the majority of the license to Exxon. The company Exxon would use was Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd (COPL)...In March 2018, Global Witness wrote to Exxon, COPL, the Liberian Government, BCP, and its suspected owners requesting comment on the Block 13 deal. As of the date of publication, only COPL has responded. The company stated that it was “aware of the allegations concerning Peppercoast’s [BCP] minority shareholders,” but that its due diligence did not find that former officials were partowners of BCP and all shareholders signed agreements promising their payments would not go to others.