Halliburton Under Investigation for Nigeria Bribery Accusations

[CShine]

The Securities and Exchange Commission is formally investigating allegations that a Halliburton Co. subsidiary was involved in paying $180 million in bribes to get a natural gas project contract in Nigeria. Vice President Dick Cheney was head of the oil services conglomerate at the time. Halliburton on Friday announced that the SEC has started a formal probe. The SEC's informal investigation of the contract was disclosed in February.

The SEC isn't alone in examining the contract, in which Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, is a 25 percent owner. Nigeria in February ordered an investigation, and a French magistrate has been probing the payments for months. The Justice Department is reviewing documents voluntarily provided by Halliburton. The company also has been under fire for allegedly overcharging the government on contracts related to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Halliburton says the company is a political target and denies wrongdoing.

<snip>

The allegations center on a $4 billion Nigerian liquefied natural gas plant built in the 1990s by the four partners. The payments for the gas plant contract were allegedly made to Nigerian officials. Cheney was Halliburton's CEO from 1995 to 2000 -- five of the seven years in which the clandestine payments were allegedly made. He resigned in 2000 to be President Bush's running mate.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Halliburton-SEC.html

[Bluebear]

1. Slick Cheney up to his old tricks

How much is enough, America?

[Tellurian]

2. hee-hee-he! Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo must have been

laughing alot harder.

Bush just didn't catch it!

[LittleApple81]

3. What is this with holding hands???? How weird is that? I know

that he was holding hands with the Saudi prince on the cover of the "House of Bush, House of Saud" book.

[Auntie Bush]

4. He's just sucking up to everyone!

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. They didn't pay off all the right people

"Nigeria in February ordered an investigation, and a French magistrate has been probing the payments for months."

Having worked for 3 different oil related businesses for the last 10 years, I can tell you that paying bribes is SOP when working in Nigeria. That is how they do things in Nigeria and everyone who does business with Nigeria knows it. If we shipped equipment of any kind to Nigeria we had to do it through a broker who would personally accompany the shipment, carrying a wad of cash, and they would pay off the right people until the equipment was delivered to its intended destination. Otherwise, the equipment didn't get there. It could be a piece of drilling equipment worth $500K. If the right palms weren't greased, it would get "stolen" and sold as scrap metal. Forget about shipping computers! They never even made it out of the Nigerian airport if bribes weren't paid.

Halliburton is on the ropes financially. It is a shell of the company it once was. My guess is that they tightened the purse strings on the "slush fund" and someone who was expecting to get paid, didn't. I still think Cheney is a crook, but when it comes to Nigeria, everyone doing business there is a crook. Halliburton is being singled out for something that's been common practice for decades.

[stickdog]

6. You'd think they could have gotten more professional yellowcake

forgeries with all that bribe money, doncha?

[0007]

7. The yellowcake was in Niger not Nigeria

[struggle4progress]

8. I want a special prosecutor!

:kick: