Halliburton: FG set to prosecute bribe takers
By Sebastine Ebhuomhan, Abuja
Published: Saturday, 14 Mar 2009
The Federal Government is set to begin the prosecution of public officials involved in the Halliburton bribery scandal, a reliable source in government, who craved anonymity, said on Friday.

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[b]The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, returned to the country on Thursday from an overseas trip that took him to the United Kingdom and the United States, in what a source said was in connection with the Halliburton saga.

Until now, the Federal Goevrnment had been unwilling to prosecute Nigerian officials involved in the matter, claiming it was yet to receive a legal notification from the countries taking action on the bribery scandal.

Although the AGF could not be reached in his office on Friday to confirm how and when the government would prosecute the bribe takers, our correspondent reliably learnt that his trip was made to obtain information on the involvement of Nigerian public officials in the bribery scandal that also involved public officials that served during the military era.[/b]However, it was also gathered that the Federal Government was in a dilemma over how to handle some powerful former officials who took some of the bribes. Some of these officials served in the last administration.

[b]The source said the Federal Government would issue a statement on Monday on the issue. He added that the statement would let Nigerians know the extent of government’s investigations into the scam.

The British police on March 5 had arrested a lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler, who was accused of moving millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials in order to secure engineering, procurement and construction contracts at the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas in Bonny Island, Rivers State.

About $182m in alleged bribe money was paid by Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellog Brown and Root, to obtain contracts worth over $6bn to build and expand the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas terminal.[/b]Tesler was implicated along with another British citizen, Wojciech Chodan. His arrest followed an extradition request from the United States government. He was charged before the City of Westminster Magistrates‘ Court the same day.

According to the United States Department of Justice, “KBR admitted that, at crucial junctures before the award of the EPC contracts, former CEO, Albert Stanley, and others met with three successive former holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the Nigerian government to ask the office holder to designate a representative with whom the joint venture should negotiate bribes to Nigerian government officials.”“Stanley and others negotiated bribe amounts with the office holders’ representatives and agreed to hire the two agents to pay the bribes.”

“According to court documents, the joint venture paid approximately $132 million to the first agent, a consulting company incorporated in Gibraltar, and more than $50 million to the second agent, a global trading company headquartered in Tokyo , Japan , during the course of the bribery scheme.”

KBR has since agreed to pay a US criminal fine of $402m as part of a plea bargain for guilt.