All the Justice Money Can Buy
From a posting on Truth Out:
Bush Sr., James Baker Instrumental in Getting Nigeria to Drop Bribery Charges Against Cheney
Friday 17 December 2010
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t Report
Former President George H.W. Bush and ex-Secretary of State James Baker were part of a negotiating team that convinced Nigerian government officials to drop bribery charges against Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the oil services firm he led prior to becoming vice president.
Representatives for Halliburton also participated in the talks.
Bush and Baker participated in conference call discussions with senior Nigerian government officials, including the country's attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, last weekend on behalf of Cheney in an attempt to work out a settlement, according to Nigerian news reports.
On Friday, Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the agency that filed the 16-count indictment last week, said the case against Cheney, Halliburton and several other current and former executives has been "formally dropped."
Earlier this week, Babafemi said Halliburton agreed during negotiation talks to a "plea bargain" and to "pay $250 million in fines in lieu of prosecution." He said the Nigerian government accepted the terms of the settlement.
Truthout was unable to reach spokespeople for Bush and Baker. A Halliburton spokesperson declined to comment.
The payment will bring an immediate end to the bribery and corruption charges against Halliburton, Cheney and several of the company's current and former executives.
Babafemi added that the payment consists of $120 million in penalties and the repatriation of $130 million "trapped in Switzerland," and he expects Adoke to approve of the deal as early as today.
As Truthout previously reported, the charges revolve around $180 million in bribes executives who worked for Halliburton's former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) paid to Nigerian government officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for $6 billion in construction contracts for the Bonny Island natural gas liquefaction plant. KBR, which also has handled lucrative US government support contracts for US troops in Iraq and elsewhere, was spun off from Halliburton in 2007 into a separate company.
The bribes allegedly went to the notoriously corrupt Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and some of his subordinates. Cheney was chairman and chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.
The cash bribes were allegedly laundered through UK lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who served as a consultant to KBR after it was formed in a 1998 merger that Cheney engineered between Halliburton and Dresser Industries. Tesler was hired in 1995 as an agent of a four-company joint venture that was awarded four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts by Nigeria LNG Ltd., (NLNG). Tesler was indicted last year by the Department of Justice, which has been conducting its own probe into the matter, and he is fighting extradition to the US.
The Justice Department announced earlier this month that Tesler's associate, Wojciech J. Chodan, the former vice president to KBR's UK subsidiary, pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for in his role in the bribery scandal.
Chodan, who was extradited to the United States from England, is scheduled to be sentenced in February and faces a maximum five years in federal prison.
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Albert "Jack" Stanley, who Cheney had named chief executive of KBR in 1998, was also named in the indictment filed by Nigerian anti-corruption officials. Charges against him have also been dropped.
Stanley was a close associate of Cheney's. The former vice president promoted him in 1998 to head KBR and told the Middle East Economic Digest in 1999 that having Stanley at the helm of the Halliburton subsidiary "has helped us tremendously."
In September 2008, Stanley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud to settle charges related to a separate kickback scheme and for conspiring to violate FCPA in connection with bribery case.
According to the DOJ's plea agreement, Stanley started paying bribes in 1995, the year Cheney was named chief executive of the corporation, and ended when Stanley was fired in 2004. Stanley faces seven years in prison and nearly $11 million in restitution payments. He remains free on bail pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for January.
Last year, KBR pleaded guilty to violating FCPA and admitted that it paid $180 million in "consulting fees" to Tesler and a Japanese trading company for use in bribing Nigerian government officials. KBR paid a $402 million fine and Halliburton paid $177 million in civil penalties as part of its plea deal. The company did not admit wrongdoing.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had questioned Cheney during its two-year-long probe of Halliburton's accounting irregularities and concluded that he should not be held responsible for what went on behind the scenes at the company he ran for five years.
US Government Intervention?
Last week, after the indictment was filed in Abuja, Nigeria's capitol, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We do not believe that there will be a basis for further action (requiring Cheney to respond to the charges), but we will look into it."
Moreover, Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, told reporters during a conference call last week that the US government was closely following the case against Cheney and had already engaged in discussions about it with Nigerian authorities.
While Nigeria government officials may be satisfied with the settlement agreement, the same cannot be said for some of the country's citizens who had hoped to see the former vice president respond to the charges.
"I would have loved to see Dick Cheney in chains in our court and facing justice in our prisons," said Celestine AkpoBari, program officer at Social Action Nigeria. "That would have been a very big point that would have lifted Nigeria out of its woes."
Owei Lakemfa, a columnist for Nigeria's Daily Vanguard, said Cheney "is an international crook who should be in jail in his country, Iraq, Netherlands, Afghanistan, Britain, Azerbaijan or in Nigeria...But unfortunately, the scales of justice are not balanced, so he will escape justice with his loot."
Bush Sr., James Baker Instrumental in Getting Nigeria to Drop Bribery Charges Against Cheney
Friday 17 December 2010
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t Report
Former President George H.W. Bush and ex-Secretary of State James Baker were part of a negotiating team that convinced Nigerian government officials to drop bribery charges against Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the oil services firm he led prior to becoming vice president.
Representatives for Halliburton also participated in the talks.
Bush and Baker participated in conference call discussions with senior Nigerian government officials, including the country's attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, last weekend on behalf of Cheney in an attempt to work out a settlement, according to Nigerian news reports.
On Friday, Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the agency that filed the 16-count indictment last week, said the case against Cheney, Halliburton and several other current and former executives has been "formally dropped."
Earlier this week, Babafemi said Halliburton agreed during negotiation talks to a "plea bargain" and to "pay $250 million in fines in lieu of prosecution." He said the Nigerian government accepted the terms of the settlement.
Truthout was unable to reach spokespeople for Bush and Baker. A Halliburton spokesperson declined to comment.
The payment will bring an immediate end to the bribery and corruption charges against Halliburton, Cheney and several of the company's current and former executives.
Babafemi added that the payment consists of $120 million in penalties and the repatriation of $130 million "trapped in Switzerland," and he expects Adoke to approve of the deal as early as today.
As Truthout previously reported, the charges revolve around $180 million in bribes executives who worked for Halliburton's former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) paid to Nigerian government officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for $6 billion in construction contracts for the Bonny Island natural gas liquefaction plant. KBR, which also has handled lucrative US government support contracts for US troops in Iraq and elsewhere, was spun off from Halliburton in 2007 into a separate company.
The bribes allegedly went to the notoriously corrupt Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and some of his subordinates. Cheney was chairman and chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.
The cash bribes were allegedly laundered through UK lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who served as a consultant to KBR after it was formed in a 1998 merger that Cheney engineered between Halliburton and Dresser Industries. Tesler was hired in 1995 as an agent of a four-company joint venture that was awarded four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts by Nigeria LNG Ltd., (NLNG). Tesler was indicted last year by the Department of Justice, which has been conducting its own probe into the matter, and he is fighting extradition to the US.
The Justice Department announced earlier this month that Tesler's associate, Wojciech J. Chodan, the former vice president to KBR's UK subsidiary, pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for in his role in the bribery scandal.
Chodan, who was extradited to the United States from England, is scheduled to be sentenced in February and faces a maximum five years in federal prison.
Truthout sustains itself through tax-deductible donations from our readers. Please make a contribution today to keep truly independent journalism strong!
Albert "Jack" Stanley, who Cheney had named chief executive of KBR in 1998, was also named in the indictment filed by Nigerian anti-corruption officials. Charges against him have also been dropped.
Stanley was a close associate of Cheney's. The former vice president promoted him in 1998 to head KBR and told the Middle East Economic Digest in 1999 that having Stanley at the helm of the Halliburton subsidiary "has helped us tremendously."
In September 2008, Stanley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud to settle charges related to a separate kickback scheme and for conspiring to violate FCPA in connection with bribery case.
According to the DOJ's plea agreement, Stanley started paying bribes in 1995, the year Cheney was named chief executive of the corporation, and ended when Stanley was fired in 2004. Stanley faces seven years in prison and nearly $11 million in restitution payments. He remains free on bail pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for January.
Last year, KBR pleaded guilty to violating FCPA and admitted that it paid $180 million in "consulting fees" to Tesler and a Japanese trading company for use in bribing Nigerian government officials. KBR paid a $402 million fine and Halliburton paid $177 million in civil penalties as part of its plea deal. The company did not admit wrongdoing.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had questioned Cheney during its two-year-long probe of Halliburton's accounting irregularities and concluded that he should not be held responsible for what went on behind the scenes at the company he ran for five years.
US Government Intervention?
Last week, after the indictment was filed in Abuja, Nigeria's capitol, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We do not believe that there will be a basis for further action (requiring Cheney to respond to the charges), but we will look into it."
Moreover, Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, told reporters during a conference call last week that the US government was closely following the case against Cheney and had already engaged in discussions about it with Nigerian authorities.
While Nigeria government officials may be satisfied with the settlement agreement, the same cannot be said for some of the country's citizens who had hoped to see the former vice president respond to the charges.
"I would have loved to see Dick Cheney in chains in our court and facing justice in our prisons," said Celestine AkpoBari, program officer at Social Action Nigeria. "That would have been a very big point that would have lifted Nigeria out of its woes."
Owei Lakemfa, a columnist for Nigeria's Daily Vanguard, said Cheney "is an international crook who should be in jail in his country, Iraq, Netherlands, Afghanistan, Britain, Azerbaijan or in Nigeria...But unfortunately, the scales of justice are not balanced, so he will escape justice with his loot."
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