Another Halliburton Probe

[Robbien]

Feb. 4 - The Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton Co. was involved in the payment of $180 million in possible kickbacks to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria during a period in the late 1990’s when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company, Newsweek has learned.

There is no evidence that Cheney was aware of the payments in question and an aide said today the vice president has not been contacted about the probe. Still, the inquiry by the Justice Department’s fraud section—which prosecutes federal anti-bribery law violations—is likely to bring new public attention to the vice president’s past at the giant oil-services firm. Halliburton has been under intense scrutiny in recent months over its handling of hundreds of millions of dollars contracts relating to the rebuilding of Iraq.

The Justice inquiry, along with a related probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission, parallels a separate investigation into the Nigerian payments that is being conducted by a French magistrate and has received widespread attention in recent months in the European press. But the Justice Department and SEC probes have not previously been reported, although they were briefly mentioned by Halliburton last week near the end of a lengthy filing with the SEC.

In the filing, the Houston-based company disclosed that the French magistrate was investigating the Nigerian payments and then added: “The U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC have asked Halliburton for a report on these matters and are reviewing the allegations in light of the US. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Halliburton has engaged outside counsel to investigate any allegations and is cooperating with the government’s inquiries… If illegal payments were made, this matter could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.”

Much more on this story:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4163810/

edit: Make sure you take a look at the cover of Newsweek at the link. WE WERE ALL WRONG with pictures of all the Bush&Co.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Halliburton Probe."

Sounds painful.

[UpInArms]

6. do you think

that they will use one of these?

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Awww, Jeez, no way would the CEO of a corp like Halliburton

be involved in deciding to invest a paltry $180 mil or so in bribes. What are executive secretaries for, after all?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Awww, Jeez, no way would the CEO of a corp like Halliburton

be involved in deciding to invest a paltry $180 mil or so in bribes. What are executive secretaries for, after all?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Double post, anyone?

Double post, anyone?
Double post, anyone?
Double post, anyone?

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

5. $180 MILLION!

Even if it's a multibillion-dollar company, that is a LOT of money. There is no way Cheney wouldn't have been signing off on this. And if he did sign off, he's got only one alibi: I didn't know they were skimming this off for payoffs. But that will only mean that he was totally negligent in his due diligence on behalf of stockholders.

At the very least, he'll be tied up in civil depositions for years. And remember, per Jones v. Clinton, that a sitting federal executive MUST testify.

[mike1963]

7. Funny how Cheney wasn't aware of anything Halliburton was doing...

isn't the CEO paid to have a few clues about the activities of the company he is running?
(there is no emoticon for "jesusfuckingchrist, give me a break and return some sanity to this goofy world")