Probe of Bribes and Money-laundering
Points to KBR at Time When VP Ran the Company
No Wonder He’s Always Underground!
A French judge is threatening to subpoena – and even to prosecute—the Vice President of the United States in a huge scandal involving Halliburton, when its CEO was Richard Cheney.
At the center of the controversy is a $6 billion gas liquification factory built in Nigeria on behalf of Shell Oil by a French petroengineering company, Technip, in partnership with Halliburton subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root. Cheney is wanted for questioning about an untraceable 120 million pounds (US$216 million) that may have been siphoned from the project in 1995 and used to bribe officials in several countries.
The conservative French newspaper LeFigaro reported last month that a prominent French investigative judge, Renaud van Ruymbeke, wants testimony from Cheney and will subpoena him if he does not come forward voluntarily. The former director general of Technip, Georges Krammer, reportedly has told Judge Van Ruymbeke that there was a “black box” used to pay $180 million in “commissions” in connection with the project.
A similar report appeared in London’s Daily Express on Jan. 4.
A U.S. law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has forbidden the use of bribery in overseas business operations since the 1970s. France passed a similar law in 2000.
The Sydney, Australia, newspaper Morning Herald ran a dispatch that says the judge had ruled out prosecuting Cheney in connection with the bribery, but might yet pursue charges of misuse of corporate funds.
Cheney, arguably the most secretive official of the Bush Administration, continues to receive compensation from Halliburton under a deferred salary and stock options deal that the Congressional Research Service held constituted a continuing relationship with the giant oil service and construction company. Halliburton and Cheney have been criticized for the awarding of non-competitive contracts to the firm during the Bush presidency.
Halliburton said it is cooperating in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that a foreign subsidiary in Nigeria made “improper payments of approximately $2.4 million.” The company claims to have fired several employees in connection with the case.
Reports on this burgeoning scandal have appeared in French and British publications but only in one U.S. newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, in the state where Cheney lived prior to becoming vice-president and where Halliburton is headquartered.
This information can be found on the Misleader Web site: http://www.misleader.org .
MoveOn.org Democracy in Action: http://www.moveon.org
Points to KBR at Time When VP Ran the Company
No Wonder He’s Always Underground!
A French judge is threatening to subpoena – and even to prosecute—the Vice President of the United States in a huge scandal involving Halliburton, when its CEO was Richard Cheney.
At the center of the controversy is a $6 billion gas liquification factory built in Nigeria on behalf of Shell Oil by a French petroengineering company, Technip, in partnership with Halliburton subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root. Cheney is wanted for questioning about an untraceable 120 million pounds (US$216 million) that may have been siphoned from the project in 1995 and used to bribe officials in several countries.
The conservative French newspaper LeFigaro reported last month that a prominent French investigative judge, Renaud van Ruymbeke, wants testimony from Cheney and will subpoena him if he does not come forward voluntarily. The former director general of Technip, Georges Krammer, reportedly has told Judge Van Ruymbeke that there was a “black box” used to pay $180 million in “commissions” in connection with the project.
A similar report appeared in London’s Daily Express on Jan. 4.
A U.S. law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has forbidden the use of bribery in overseas business operations since the 1970s. France passed a similar law in 2000.
The Sydney, Australia, newspaper Morning Herald ran a dispatch that says the judge had ruled out prosecuting Cheney in connection with the bribery, but might yet pursue charges of misuse of corporate funds.
Cheney, arguably the most secretive official of the Bush Administration, continues to receive compensation from Halliburton under a deferred salary and stock options deal that the Congressional Research Service held constituted a continuing relationship with the giant oil service and construction company. Halliburton and Cheney have been criticized for the awarding of non-competitive contracts to the firm during the Bush presidency.
Halliburton said it is cooperating in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that a foreign subsidiary in Nigeria made “improper payments of approximately $2.4 million.” The company claims to have fired several employees in connection with the case.
Reports on this burgeoning scandal have appeared in French and British publications but only in one U.S. newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, in the state where Cheney lived prior to becoming vice-president and where Halliburton is headquartered.
This information can be found on the Misleader Web site: http://www.misleader.org .
MoveOn.org Democracy in Action: http://www.moveon.org