Halliburton To Pay $35 Million To Settle Nigeria Bribery Charges

by Samuel Rubenfeld, Wall Street Journal, WSJ Blogs, Corruption Currents, Commentary and news about money laundering, bribery, terrorism finance and sanctions.

Corrected Below

Halliburton Co. said Tuesday it settled bribery charges with the Nigerian government and agreed to pay a $32.5 million fine, contradicting reports from last week quoting government officials saying the company would pay $250 million.

A company spokeswoman said she had no comment beyond the announcement, and Corruption Currents could not reach the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which negotiated the settlement.

However, one possible explanation came from Fred Enochs, a partner at Washington, D.C.-based consultancy TD International, who told Dow Jones Newswires that there may have been political implications at play with the Nigerian government due to looming elections. In a trial, the names of officials receiving the payments could have been revealed.

“They certainly didn’t want to see that happen–especially with an election coming up,” said Enochs, who works from Houston and was formerly with the Central Intelligence Agency and a director at Enron Corp.

The charges stemmed from $6 billion in contracts with a four-company joint venture that included Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a former Halliburton subsidiary, to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, off the southern coast of Nigeria. The joint venture, known as TSKJ, allegedly paid more than $180 million in bribes to government officials from 1994 to 2004 in order to obtain the contracts.

Under the settlement, according to the Halliburton statement, the company agreed to “provide reasonable assistance” to the Nigerian government in helping it recover money frozen in a Swiss bank account belonging to an agent who worked on behalf of TSKJ. In addition to the fine, Halliburton also agreed to pay $2.5 million in attorney’s fees and other expenses, the statement said.

KBR said earlier this month that Nigerian officials were “wildly and wrongly asserting blame.”

The Halliburton announcement contrasts with reports from Nigerian officials over the past week saying the company agreed to pay $250 million in a settlement during a meeting in London between company officials and Nigerian anti-corruption officials.

KBR and Halliburton separated in 2007.

The companies paid a combined $579 million to the U.S. government last year to settle similar allegations related to this scandal. KBR pleaded guilty to charges in the case and the government agreed not to prosecute Halliburton. Other companies in the joint venture paid up in the U.S. as well: Technip agreed to pay $338 million in late June 2010, and 10 days later Snamprogetti Netherlands BV–formerly a unit of Eni SpA and later a unit of Saipem Construction Co. –agreed to pay $365 million.

Snamprogetti said Monday it settled with the Nigerian EFCC to pay a $32.5 million fine.

Wojciech J. Chodan, a U.K. citizen who consulted for KBR, pleaded guilty in the U.S. earlier this month after being extradited to face charges that he organized the bribery ring in Nigeria for the Bonny Island projects. The 72-year-old U.K. citizen admitted that he and co-conspirators paid out $182 million over 10 years in order to secure the contracts. He faces up to five years in prison, and will be sentenced Feb. 22 in Houston.

-Ryan Dezember and Tess Stynes contributed to this report.

(Correction: TD International is based in Washington, D.C., and Enochs works in Houston. The post previously indicated that the consultancy was itself based in Houston.)

Nigeria’s Oil Company Has 40 Days of Fuel Supplies, by Dulue Mbachu, Bloomberg – Dec 23, 2010 5:37 AM PT

Nigeria’s state-owned oil company said it has enough fuel to meet domestic demand for 40 days after pipeline sabotage by militants crippled all its refineries.

To deal with the attacks, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. is “partnering with security agencies to stem the tide,” Levi Ajuonuma, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Operations were halted at refineries in the southern cities of Port Harcourt and Warri and the northern city of Kaduna, with a combined capacity for 445,000 barrels of crude a day, the company, known as NNPC, said yesterday. Managing Director Austen Oniwon sought deployment of troops to protect the pipelines at a meeting with the army high command on Dec. 21.

The Niger Delta Liberation Force, an armed group fighting government troops in Nigeria’s southeastern oil region, said on Dec. 6 it ruptured a pipeline belonging to the state oil company. Armed attacks in the Niger River delta, home to the country’s oil industry, cut about 28 percent of Nigeria’s oil exports between 2006 and 2009, according to Bloomberg data.

“We want to inform President Goodluck Jonathan that the army cannot protect the nation’s oil facilities,” Mark Anthony, a spokesman for the rebel group known as NDLF, said in an e- mailed statement today. “NDLF bombs are hanging on many pipelines and other oil facilities across Niger Delta region, ready for detonation at any time we decide.”

Nigeria is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA run joint ventures with the state-owned oil company that pump most of the West African nation’s oil.

A recent surge of attacks by militants in the region, who are demanding a greater share of the delta’s oil riches, follows a period of calm when thousands of fighters disarmed under a government amnesty plan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Abuja at dmbachu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

The people of Ayakoromo community documented the brutality and destruction brought by the military attacks.

Repeated incidences of bombing, shelling, and invasions by the Nigerian Military has alerted communities to the pattern. Having been warned about potential violence, the people of Ayakoromo community documented the destruction. The following statement and more, including pictures and a list of dead, can be found at www.ayakoromo.org.  Images of the ruins of Ayakoromo can be found here.

title: Razed down houses, photo credit: www.ayakoromo.org

BEING TEXT OF A PRESS BRIEFING/CONFERENCE BY AYAKOROMO COMMUNITY, YENAGOA, BRANCH BAYELSA STATE ON MONDAY; 13TH DECEMBER, 2010 AT THE NUJ FEDERATED CORRESPONDENTS CHAPEL, YENAGOA.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press

We have invited you to this press conference to share with you the pains visited on our peace-loving community by the Joint Task Force (JTF), a special military task force in the Niger Delta on the 1st of December, 2010.

Following reports of a full-scale military invasion of Ayakoromo, a federated community along River Forcados in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, we dispatched three separate teams to the community in company with respected International human right bodies and the media to ascertain the truth.

Ayakoromo, an autonomous city-state is about 25 nautical miles from the oil city of Warri. By the 1991 population census, Ayakoromo recorded a head count of 41,204 persons. The community occupies a stretch of the Forcados River and part of its estuary. These high population and geographical expanse confer on Ayakoromo, the melting pot of commercial and socio-political activities; and a high-way of contact among communities in the Western Niger Delta. Her citizens have attained a high- level of professional strength and exposure in various fields of human endeavour.

The indigenes who speak the Ijaw language engage in productive activities such as fishing, farming, canoe carving, masonry, trading and local gin distillery. Ayakoromo is the home of the Catholic Faith in Ijawland. Besides, its huge catholic population, it has produced the highest number of catholic priests among Ijaw communities in Nigeria. The people are sociable and hospitable.

In 2004, some misguided youths led by one John Togo terrorized the community and its neighbours. He was consequently outlawed and ostracized by Ayakoromo community. Later that year, John Togo was arrested in Port Harcourt and detained at the David Ejoor Barracks, Warri. But for reasons best known to the authorities, John Togo without trial after more than 2 years in detention was freed. He subsequently became part of the militancy in the Niger Delta. John Togo accepted amnesty offered by Late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009. The post-amnesty programme transformed most of the militants into emperors, among who was John Togo. He suddenly became a close ally of the Federal Government and it’s Military. This was displayed in John Togo’s farm-camp; about 3 miles from Ayakoromo town where military officers dined and wined daily with him. With this you can easily decipher why the harmless and defenseless citizens cannot challenge the now heavily-armed militant called John Togo. Why John Togo recently backed out from the amnesty programme is a secret between the Federal Government, its military and the man himself. On several occasions, the community leaders provided the military with information at the David Ejoor Barracks, yet the military did not act decisively. This was also confirmed by the JTF Commander, Major-General Charles Omoregie in his interviews with the press. (eg The Nation of Sunday December 5th 2010 and Sun Rise Daily programme of Channels TV of Tuesday 7th December, 2010.)

Ladies and gentlemen, what placed Ayakoromo community in the anvil for hammering on that fateful 1st December, 2010 was spine-chilling to say the least. Although, for days, speculations were rife of an imminent invasion of the community by the military in search of John Togo; many never believed it would happen because John Togo neither had a camp nor a living house in the town. John Togo for over two years never lived in the town. The military knows where John Togo’s camps are – they are far away from the community. JOHN TOGO OR HIS FOLLOWERS NEVER FLED INTO AYAKOROMO OR USED IT AS A SHIELD THAT VERY DAY OF THE ATTACK.

At about 12noon that day, soldiers in more than 10 gun boats started shooting indiscriminately from the western fringe of the town. In less than 20 minutes after the gun boats were seen, 4 jet- fighters from the Warri axis emerged and started shelling the community. From the eastern end of the community landed heavy artillery with grenade launchers and other sophisticated weapons. It was a thoroughly-planned and mobilized punitive expedition that is only intended to achieve a genocidal purpose! At the end of the day about 51 persons were confirmed dead. Over 500 persons sustained injuries of various degrees. What was left of the community after the bombardments were corpses in their pool of blood and ashes: Over 200 buildings in the community also went down in rubbles!
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Nnimmo Bassey was arrested last night along with others in Oben, Edo State, Nigeria shortly after taking these pictures. The captions are his.  Gas flares have been illegal in Nigeria since 1984!

These flares have been raging for over 3 decades. Day and night...non stop

Nnimmo Bassey’s work as Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and Chair of Friends of the Earth International has turned him into one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for the environment and human rights. He has tirelessly stood up against the practices of multinational corporations and the environmental devastation they leave behind, destroying the lives and trampling on the rights of local people.

twin flares...toxic to environment and human health...maximum profits for sHell

Nights are banished here! Note the evil glow

Nigeria to drop Dick Cheney charges after plea bargain, by David Smith, Port Harcourt, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 19.42 GMT

File photo of former US Vice President Cheney speaking in Washington Nigerian anti-corruption police said this month they planned to file charges against Dick Cheney. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/REUTERS

Halliburton agrees to pay $250m in fines in lieu of prosecution over alleged multimillion-dollar bribes

Nigeria’s anti-corruption police have dropped charges against Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, over a multi-million dollar bribery case after the energy firm Halliburton agreed to pay up to $250m (£161m) in fines.

The move followed the intervention of ex-president George Bush Sr and former secretary of state James Baker, according to Nigerian press reports.

The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it met officials representing Cheney and Halliburton in London last week after filing 16-count charges relating to the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in the conflict-ridden Niger delta.

Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the EFCC, said: “There was a plea bargain on the part of the company to pay $250m as fines in lieu of prosecution.”

Read the rest of the story here.

The groundbreaking Halliburton Bribery Scandal has been ongoing for seven years.

“Allegations that bribes had been paid first surfaced in an unrelated case in France. A French magistrate began looking into the matter in October 2003, uncovering shell corporations in Gibraltar and bank accounts in Switzerland. U.S. investigators joined the hunt in January 2004, according to Halliburton SEC filings,” as detailed in a 2008 report “US: Halliburton Ex-Official Pleads Guilty in Bribe Case”

WikiLeaks cables: Shell’s grip on Nigerian state revealed, by David Smith, guardian.co.uk, Lagos, Wednesday 8 December 2010 21.34 GMT

US embassy cables reveal top executive’s claims that company ‘knows everything’ about key decisions in government ministries

The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The company’s top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew “everything that was being done in those ministries”. She boasted that the Nigerian government had “forgotten” about the extent of Shell’s infiltration and were unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

The cache of secret dispatches from Washington’s embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.

The WikiLeaks disclosure was today seized on by campaigners as evidence of Shell’s vice-like grip on the country’s oil wealth. “Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin,” said Celestine AkpoBari, programme officer for Social Action Nigeria.

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