Westport Man Sentenced In International Bribery And Money Laundering Case: Feds

WESTPORT, CT — A former senior oil and gas trader from Westport was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months in prison for taking part in an eight-year bribery and money-laundering scheme involving Brazilian government officials, federal prosecutors said. He was also ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.

Prosecutors said Glenn Oztemel, 66, helped funnel more than $1 million in bribes to employees of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., or Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company. According to court filings and trial evidence, the payments were made in exchange for confidential pricing data and competitor bid information that helped two of his employers — Arcadia Fuels Ltd. and Freepoint Commodities LLC — win fuel oil contracts.

Authorities said Oztemel and others arranged for Arcadia and Freepoint to route the payments through a third-party agent, Eduardo Innecco, who then passed a portion of the money to Petrobras officials, including trader Rodrigo Berkowitz, who was based in Houston. Prosecutors said the bribes were disguised as consulting fees and commissions, and the conspirators used coded terms such as “breakfast” and “freight deviation,” as well as personal email accounts, encrypted apps, burner phones and aliases including “Spencer Kazisnaf” and “Nikita Maksimov,” to hide the scheme.

A jury convicted Oztemel in September 2024 of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, three counts of violating the FCPA and two counts of money laundering.

In a related case, Freepoint admitted in December 2023 to bribing officials in Brazil and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and federal prosecutors in Connecticut. The company agreed to pay more than $98 million in penalties and forfeiture.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Los Angeles International Corruption Squad with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and authorities in Brazil, Latvia, Switzerland and Uruguay.

The case was prosecuted by attorneys from the Justice Department’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.