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Several former officials from Indonesia’s state oil firm, Pertamina, have been banned from travelling abroad during a bribery probe into US specialty chemicals company Innospec Inc, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Monday.

Last month, Innospec agreed to pay $40.2 million to settle allegations it paid bribed Indonesian and Iraqi government officials and violated the US trade embargo against Cuba.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office in Feb. charged Innospec’s British unit with conspiracy to make corrupt payments in return for Indonesian government contracts to supply tetraethyl lead, a compound used in gasoline, between Feb. 2002 and Dec. 2006.

Indonesia’s KPK has been separately investigating the case since mid April.

“In our preliminary investigation we suspect a fee [has been paid] to officials in Indonesia, but in what form and how much ... that’s part of our investigation,” said KPK spokesman Johan Budi.

The travel ban applied to two or three former high-ranking Pertamina officials and a few other individuals, he said.

Corruption has emerged as a defining issue of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second term, with the respected KPK making significant progress in investigating corrupt officials.

Innospec describes itself as an international speciality chemicals company with almost 1,000 employees in 23 countries and a turnover of $600 million.

The settlement it reached last month resolves charges by the US Department of Justice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

Reuters