I've been tracking down information on Halliburton scandals and questionable activities, and tonight John Edwards finally confronted Dick Cheney with some of these issues.
I don't doubt the public knows very little about it so I've provided a few stories here for some background. I'd love to see more diaries on the subject, and this is admittedly scattershot because.. it's late & I'm super tired! At least check the first link though, regarding the attack Edwards made on Halliburton's dealings with states that sponsor terrorism..
Sen. Frank Lautenberg held a hearing on this earlier in the year. Here's a link - warning, PDF file! - and some quotes in the extended copy, followed by a few more pieces on Halliburton.
http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/hearings/hearing12/lautenberg.pdf
Sen. Lautenberg:
Vice President Cheney gave a speech a few weeks ago in Rome, in which he strongly chastised those who - and I quote - "tolerate and profit from corruption and maintain ties to terrorist groups."
This line struck me as ironic, because as we have recently discovered, when Vice President Cheney was the head of Halliburton, he seems to have conducted his business in a manner that embraces all that he now criticizes. This week, my staff uncovered documents from the Department of Commerce revealing a "flurry of business activities" between Halliburton and the Iranian government when Vice President Cheney ran the company. The documents indicate contacts between an Iranian oil company called Kala Limited and a subsidiary of Halliburton, Halliburton Products and Services, which has "offices" in Dubai but is registered in the Cayman Islands. (REFER to POSTER)
These stacks of documents, which I would be happy to provide to my colleagues, seem to be part of the reason that Department of Treasury investigators recently reopened an investigation of Halliburton for evading and possibly breaking U.S. sanctions prohibiting trade with Iran. Although the Treasury Department had investigated this allegation in the past, a new investigation was begun this month, subsequent to new revelations of Halliburton's shell games to avoid the sanctions preventing U.S. corporations from doing business with terrorist states.
In late January, the news program 60 Minutes reported that while Vice President Cheney headed Halliburton in the late 1990s, the company set up a foreign subsidiary in the Cayman Islands called Halliburton Products and Services. Although the subsidiary was wholly owned by the U.S.-based Halliburton, it was deliberately located there so that Halliburton could do business with Iran and avoid U.S. sanctions for doing so.
When investigators visited the Halliburton Products and Services Company in the Cayman Islands, they found no employees, no actual office, and no real business. All they found was a "mail drop" that forwarded mail received there to Halliburton's headquarters in Houston.
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Now, despite the possibility that Halliburton - under Vice President Cheney's watch - was deliberately bypassing U.S. sanction law to conduct business with the terrorist regime in Tehran, this administration, which purports to be waging a "global war on terrorism," has given Halliburton contracts exceeding 9 billion dollars to rebuild Iraq.
Kerry's been planning this attack for a while, it seems:
August 24, 2004:
Kerry sees Halliburton as core of campaign
By THOMAS CATAN
The presidential campaign of John Kerry signalled its intent yesterday to place the controversy surrounding Halliburton, the oil services giant formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, at the centre of its bid for the White House.
The signal followed a leaked report by Pentagon auditors that found Halliburton had inadequately accounted for Dollars 1.8bn (Euros 1.5bn, Pounds 1bn) in charges for work in Iraq and Kuwait, adding fuel to a combustible election-year issue.
-snip-
This month Halliburton agreed to pay Dollars 7.5m to settle charges arising from a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into accounting practices during the period when Mr Cheney was at the helm of the company.
-snip-
The company is already embroiled in two separate billing disputes with the Pentagon: one involving Dollars 900m in charges for feeding US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and another worth Dollars 180m for importing fuel from Kuwait. Pentagon auditors had recommended that 15 per cent of each contract be withheld until they could verify costs. The company has so far prevailed on the government to delay that measure.
A St. Petersburg Times piece, which misses the issue of Halliburton's business deals overseas, but nevertheless finds plenty of material:
October 4, 2004:
Articulate upstart, wily veteran clash next; Halliburton history could haunt Cheney in the debate
ROBERT TRIGAUX
-snip-
For Cheney, Halliburton proved a gold mine. From 2000 through 2002, after leaving Halliburton, Cheney and wife, Lynne, pulled in a remarkable $41.6-million. That made them the richest couple to occupy the vice president's quarters in U.S. history.
Despite big Iraq contracts, Halliburton struggles with problems. Here are just three:
- For years, the company's Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) subsidiary allegedly overcharged the government on Iraq contracts. Halliburton denied overcharging but now wants to sell KBR.
- In 1998, when Cheney was CEO, Halliburton boosted its income by changing how it accounted for cost overruns on construction projects. Though legal, the change was never disclosed to investors. The SEC fined and sued Halliburton's former controller and chief financial officer, but looked no higher. Former CEO Cheney denied he knew anything about it.
- The Justice Department is investigating allegations that former Halliburton employees accepted bribes involving a $5-billion project in Nigeria while Cheney was CEO.
Finally, Nigeria. First is the ongoing investigation in Europe of Halliburton's involvement in paying bribes out of a slush fund to Nigerian officials. There's the issue of Halliburton being banned from government contracts in Nigeria because "the firm refused to cooperate following the disappearance of two radioactive devices". And on the bribes, that's a diary unto itself, but here's a teaser:
Financial Times (London, England), September 17, 2004
Halliburton 'backed' bribes probe agent
By THOMAS CATAN, STEPHEN FIDLER, MICHAEL PEEL and WILLIAM WALLIS
Halliburton intervened with its partners in a huge Nigerian gas venture to secure the reappointment of abusiness agent now at the centre of an international bribery inquiry, a French judge has been told.
Evidence before the judge suggests that in 1999 - while US Vice-President Dick Cheney was Halliburton chief executive - a Halliburton subsidiary overrode its partners' objections to rehiring a British lawyer who, it has since been alleged, channelled payments to Nigerian officials and corporate executives.
The evidence comes from a summary of the case obtained by the Financial Times along with a partial record of an interview by the judge of Jeffrey Tesler, the London-based lawyer.
Halliburton, the US oil services company, has long denied breaking US laws banning foreign bribery. It admitted this month finding notes that showed executives in the joint venture had discussed bribing Nigerian officials "at least 10 years ago". But it said there was no evidence bribes were paid and emphasised that the talks had largely pre- dated its own involvement in the venture, called TSKJ.