Crawford Under Investigation for Mexico Bribery

U.S. oilfield equipment companies are under investigation by a federal grand jury on charges of making multimillion dollar bribes to officials of Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex.

The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Customs Service under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.

The case surfaced in early May as a result of court papers filed by a Mexican firm that is suing the Houston-based oilfield equipment company, Crawford Enterprises, Inc., for allegedly not paying agreed-upon agent fees.

Crawford Enterprises - the only U.S. firm that has confirmed that it is under federal investigation - conducted $647 million in business with Pemex from 1978 to 1981. Its contracts in Mexico were negotiated by the Mexican firm Grupo Industrial Delta.

Delta sued Crawford last summer for failing to pay a 7% commission fee - approximately $45 million. Crawford has denied the charge and this May counter-sued, claiming it had suffered loss of business resulting from "intentional and malicious practices" by Delta.

Crawford announced on April 29 that its contracts with Pemex have been under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for three and a half years. The company said, however, that Pemex investigations had concluded that there is "no evidence of any improper or illegal conduct... in connection with Pemex's letting of contracts" to Crawford.

The Crawford-Delta controversy took on another wrinkle when Mexican authorities arrested four top officials of Delta in early May, charging them with tax evasion for not reporting as income $45 million they allegedly received in commissions from Crawford and deposited in Swiss bank accounts.