Former Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five companies, including Halliburton, face indictments in Nigeria for their roles in allegedly bribing government officials to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract.

 

A Nigerian prosecutor claims that $180 million in bribes were paid by representatives of Halliburton (which Cheney ran as CEO from 1995 to 2000), its former subsidiary KBR Inc., Technip SA (Europe’s second-largest oilfield-services provider), Eni SpA (Italy’s biggest oil company) and Saipem Construction, a unit of Eni.

 

So far, 23 Nigerian officials have been arrested as a result of the bribery investigation.

 

Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay $579 million in February 2009 for bribery payments that took place from 1994 to 2004.

 

In October 2003, it was reported in France that Cheney could have been subject to the charge of “abuse of corporate assets” according to French law even if it was proven that he did not have direct knowledge of bribes. However, despite the involvement of Technip, France did not have jurisdiction in the case.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Nigeria to Charge Dick Cheney in Pipeline Bribery Case (by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, Bloomberg)

Halliburton and Nigeria: A Chronology of Key Events in the Unfolding Bribery Scandal (HalliburtonWatch.org)