Halliburton - 'criminal activity hard to uncover when it's contemporary'

Yahoo-AP: A federal investigation into an alleged $180 million bribery scandal in Nigeria involving a Halliburton Co. subsidiary and other companies has expanded to examine whether former employees may have illegally coordinated bidding on other foreign construction projects as early as the mid-1980s, long before Halliburton acquired the subsidiary.

........... The Nigeria allegations center on a contract for a $4 billion Nigerian liquefied natural gasplant awarded in 1995 to TSKJ, a consortium of four partners - M.W. Kellogg Co., a subsidiary of Dresser Industries; Technip AL of France; ENI SpA of Italy; and Japan Gasoline Corp.

Halliburton acquired Dresser in 1998 - three years after Vice President Dick Cheney began his 1995-2000 tenure as Halliburton's chief executive officer - and combined its Brown & Root subsidiary with M.W. Kellogg to form KBR.

The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, a French magistrate and Nigerian officials are investigating whether the consortium paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials from 1995 through 2002. The consortium got other contracts involving the Nigerian plant in 1999 and 2002.

Last June Halliburton fired two consultants, including former KBR chairman A. Jack Stanley, for violating the company's business code of conduct by receiving "improper personal benefits" related to TSKJ's construction of the Nigerian plant.

But the company said in Tuesday's filing that Stanley and other former workers "may have engaged in (other) coordinated bidding with one or more competitors on certain foreign construction projects and that such coordination possibly began as early as the mid-1980s, which was significantly before our 1998 acquisition of Dresser Industries." Link

[DB:Halliburton shares rose 81 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $43.66 in afternoon trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange]


See: The Center for Public Integrity - Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton) overview Link
Halliburton Watch - 'Chronology of Key Events in the Unfolding Bribery Scandal' Link
Halliburton Watch - 'Bribing Nigeria' Link
Guardian - 'UK lawyer named in bribery inquiry' Link
Hansard - Questions in UK Parliament re. Kellogg, Brown and Root
Export Credits Guarantee Link
Corpwatch- How Cheney's Firm Routed $132m to Nigeria via Tottenham Lawyer Link