By Reuters

(Reuters) – Three former employees of a former UK division of German logistics and freight company Bertling were sentenced by a London court for bribing an agent of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil group, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said.

Joerg Blumberg, Dirk Juergensen and Marc Schweiger were sentenced, fined and disqualified as company directors following their convictions for conspiracy to make corrupt payments earlier this year, the SFO said on Friday. (http://bit.ly/2gwwrbQ)

The three former employees were each given a 20-month sentence, suspended for two years, fined 20,000 pounds fine, and disqualified from being company directors for five years, the SFO said.

Six former senior managers and employees of F.H. Bertling Ltd, and F.H. Bertling Ltd itself, have pleaded guilty to bribery in Angola between Jan 2004 and Dec 2006.

Giuseppe Morreale, Stephen Emler and F.H. Bertling Ltd (UK) – once part of 150-year-old, Hamburg-based Bertling Group – will be sentenced later. Ralf Petersen, who also pleaded guilty, is now deceased.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru)