Graham Marchment

The SFO is conducting a civil recovery investigation against Graham Marchment, who pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to corrupt, contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 in May 2015.

Between 2004 and 2008, Marchment worked as a procurement engineer and deliberately leaked confidential information to bidders for contracts worth around £40 million in exchange for payments disguised as commission. The lucrative contracts related to oil and gas engineering projects in Egypt, Russia and Singapore. Marchment’s guilty plea followed the conviction after trial of Andrew Rybak, Ronald Saunders, Philip Hammond and Barry Smith for involvement in the same scheme in relation to oil and gas contracts totalling £66m in Iran, Egypt, Russia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

Marchment was sentenced to 2.5 years’ imprisonment for his role in the conspiracy and ordered to pay a confiscation of £32,645.28. In March 2018, he was handed another years’ imprisonment for failing to pay this confiscation.

On 17 December 2018, the SFO secured a compliance order against Marchment, preventing him from leaving the United Kingdom until he has paid his confiscation order in full. This order was further varied on 13 March 2020 to require Mr Marchment to provide specified information regarding assets and for the purpose of ensuring payment of the confiscation order.

At a hearing on 17 September 2020, HHJ Taylor QC extended the compliance order for a further month to allow for Mr Marchment to provide the specified information, again preventing him from leaving the country until he has paid in full the confiscation order. With interest, the amount owed by Marchment is now £43,448.18 (as at 17 September 2020).

HHJ Taylor QC indicated that the case will be reviewed before 16 October 2020, at which point the SFO is able to make a further compliance order application. The Judge further stated that, although Marchment has apparently made some attempt to provide information in compliance with the order, the court will consider adding a penal notice for contempt of court to the order if no apparent further attempts are made.