Former Innospec CEO pleads guilty in corruption case

THE former chief executive of Ellesmere Port-based chemicals manufacturer Innospec Ltd has pleaded guilty to corruption charges at a court hearing in London.

Paul Jennings appeared before Southwark Crown Court today charged with alleged offences of conspiring to make corrupt payments to public officials in Indonesia and Iraq to secure contracts for Innospec Ltd for the supply of its products.

He pleaded guilty to two allegations of conspiracy to corrupt by giving or agreeing togive corrupt payments to public officials and other agents of the governments of Indonesia (February 2002 and ecember 2008) and Iraq (January 2003 and January 31 2008) as inducements to secure, or as rewards for having secured, contracts from those Governments for the supply of its products.

In January former Innospec sales and marketing director Dr David Turner pleaded guilty to two conspiracy to corrupt charges.

Two other former senior executives, Miltos Papachristos, who was at the time the regional sales director for the Asia-Pacific region and a second former Innospec CEO, Dennis Kerrison, have pleaded not guilty to a single charge of conspiring to corrupt Indonesian government officials between 2002 and 2008.

Innospec Ltd, which makes fuel additives at its factory in Ellesmere Port, is a subsidiary of the Nasdaq-listed Innospec Inc.