Former Pemex Executive Says He Took ‘Candies’ From Vitol Trader

A former Pemex executive testified that he agreed to accept $300,000 from Vitol Group in exchange for helping the trading house win a deal with the Mexican state-owned oil company.

The testimony is the latest development in the trial of former Vitol trader Javier Aguilar to recount the corrupt activities of the commodity trading industry in near-unprecedented detail.

Carlos Espinosa, a former manager at Pemex’s Houston-based subsidiary PPI, on Tuesday told a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, that he and a colleague accepted bribes from Aguilar which they called “dulces por la fiesta,” or candies for the party.

While ...