How long can they hold this off with the onset of a formal SEC investigation in the mix?
England, Nigeria, DOJ, French authorities and now the SEC are investigating criminal activity during Cheney's tenure at Halliburton for Nigerian oil bribes worth up to seven billion in contracts for Kellogg Brown and Root their subsidiary.
According to Evelyn Pringle of OpEdNews:
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a formal investigation into whether Halliburton made improper payments to government officials in Nigeria in connection with the construction and expansion by TSKJ of a natural gas liquefaction complex and facilities at Bonny Island in Rivers State, Nigeria...
The shiv after the gate...
This update is a development in the widely cited Halliburton/Nigerian Oil bribery scandal reported in 2003 and beyond.
The penalties consist of and are not limited to: suspension or debarment from government contracts (currently 6.6 billion in revenue), fines, punitive damages, third party lawsuits, and criminal indictment and proceedings.
Investigators in the US, France and Nigeria, the Times said, have looked with particular interest at handwritten meeting minutes surrendered by Halliburton, in which the consortium partners use highly suggestive language about how they plan to do business.
"One note," the Times reports, "from December 1994 says that "all services" will cost the consortium $180m, with a further $60m allocated to "culture".
"Elsewhere in the notes," the article says, "KBR and its consortium partners - Technip of France, Italy's Snamprogetti and JGC of Japan - discuss the pros and cons of a series of possible "secret" and "open" payments to agents."
The payments were made during Cheney's tenure, and according to the Boson Globe, "If such payments were made and Cheney approved them, he could be guilty of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
Mr Tesler swears that Cheney knew about the bribes. He testified under oath in May, 2004 that he made payments to Jack Stanley, while Stanley was president of KBR, and specifically testified that Cheney approved the payments.
His testimony is backed up by banking records that show that at least $5 million in payments were wired to Stanley through a secret bank account in Zurich. Mr Tesler also testified that he paid $350,000 to another Halliburton executive, William Chaudran, through a secret bank account on the isle of Jersey.
International heat...
August 7, 2006, the Financial Times of London reported that KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, is being investigated by Britain's Serious Fraud Office over the company's role in an alleged plot to pay more than $170 million in bribes to win $7 billion worth of contracts at a Nigerian oil plant.
For part of the period under investigation, the newspaper reported, Halliburton was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
A great deal hinges on Halliburton meeting notes, the transfer of payment records, the SEC investigation evidence, and the testimony of Jeff Tesler.
But Halliburton is flipping under the threat of a newly convening Grand Jury and their recent SEC investigation filings show erosion of the stonewall:
"We have reason to believe," Halliburton said in its SEC filing, "based on the ongoing investigations, that payments may have been made to Nigerian officials."
Also detailed by Dan Kennedy at the Boston Phoenix:
The Nigerian affair hasn't exactly been a secret. You won't be reading about it in Project Censored's annual round-up of "the news that didn't make the news." It has, after all, been reported in some detail on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, on Newsweek's Web site, and on NPR's All Things Considered. Dan Rather even gave it a quick, context-free mention recently on The CBS Evening News
Who did you say "supports" our troops shooter? I think those vertical stripes will be very flattering on you...
Update:
"If such payments were made and Cheney approved them, he could be guilty of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," the Boston Globe points out. (U.S. corporate officials are only liable for the actions of their foreign subsidiaries if it can be determined that they had personal knowledge of the subsidiary's improper actions.) The Globe editorialized that, "If the payments were made and he [Cheney] did not know about them, he could not have been a hands-on leader of his conglomerate. The nation, in any case, deserves answers before it votes in November."