Deep Politics Forum

Business as usual:

Quote:Halliburton may pay $500 million to keep Cheney out of prison: report

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Oilfield services company Halliburton is in negotiations with the Nigerian government to keep its former CEO, Dick Cheney, out of prison, according to a news report.

Sources inside Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told GlobalPost this week that a settlement keeping the charges against Cheney out of court could cost as much as $500 million.

Nigeria filed charges against Cheney this week in an investigation of alleged bribery estimated at $180 million. Prosecutors named both Halliburton and KBR in the charges, as well as three European oil and engineering companies -- Technip SA, EniSpa, and Saipem Construction.

The charges allege that engineering contractor KBR, until 2007 a subsidiary of Halliburton, was among companies that paid bribes to secure a $6 billion contract for a natural gas plant. KBR pleaded guilty to the same bribes in a US court in 2009, and agreed to pay a $382 million fine. The Nigerian charges appear to stem from the US case -- though, in that trial, Cheney was never directly charged.

It's not clear from the GlobalPost report if the $500 million figure refers to the amount Halliburton will have to pay, or whether that amount would cover all the companies that have been charged.

Further complicating the issue is that the negotiations appear to be an out-of-court settlement, because Nigerian law doesn't recognize plea bargaining.

The idea that an out-of-court settlement could be used in a criminal case angered anti-corruption activist Adetokunbo Mumuni, who told GlobalPost, "There cannot be an out of court settlement. In a purely criminal matter like this, the full letters of the law should apply. Whoever is involved should be taken through the entire process to determine their guilt or not."

The legal vagueness surrounding the reported negotiations will likely fuel accusations that Halliburton and the other accused companies are attempting to bribe their way out of a bribery prosecution.

But the willingness of Nigerian officials to quote a dollar figure in the midst of negotiations could also fuel speculation that the Nigerian charges are an attempt to shake down the companies for cash.

"The issue should not be so much about the former US vice president, it should be to what extent the law will be properly applied," Mumuni told GlobalPost.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/halli...ey-prison/

Sounds like that and a bit more in brown paper bags to grease the wheels of 'justice'. Too bad. I was looking forward to seeing Cheny and friends rot away in a Nigerian jail.

The article is probably partly psy-ops to make Americans who hold Cheney to accountability look like laughable Nigerian justice ministers.

The price Cheney puts on himself speaks volumes.

And it speaks volumes too to the amount of dirty money he has generated for Halliburton over the years that they would offer to pay half a billion dollars to keep him out of prison.

It's also nice to know that the Nigerian criminal system is so flexible that money paid is justice served - which clearly tells us that wealth is above the law.

David Guyatt Wrote:The price Cheney puts on himself speaks volumes.

And it speaks volumes too to the amount of dirty money he has generated for Halliburton over the years that they would offer to pay half a billion dollars to keep him out of prison.

It's also nice to know that the Nigerian criminal system is so flexible that money paid is justice served - which clearly tells us that wealth is above the law.

Just think of it as the privatization of 'justice'. Highest bidder goes free....etc. In the past wealthy men could buy their way out of military service [they still could until the ended the draft] - and now in the same spirit of injustice, wealthy men can buy their way out of legal problems, even verdicts of guilty and prison. So very fair. Oh, I love neo-feudalism. Can we have quaint old costumes too to play serf in?!

And it speaks volumes about the manners in which Cheney has protected himself.

Pin-striped demons act only out of self-interest.

The Cheney types use grumbles against their anti-democratic actions as justification of their sneering defense-reaction contempt and rationale for their ensuing misdoings.

They're simply neo-fascists, that's all there is to it. What they do is puff-out our democratic form into a comfortably expanded venue padded by phony espousing of freedom and other finer governmental practices and then practice their rank form of neo-fascism comfortably within. It's pure corruption and practiced deception. Democracy rot.

The dirty deal is done and dusted.

George Bush Sr and Bush crime family Consigliere Baker were involved.

Quote:Nigeria to drop Dick Cheney charges after plea bargain

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

David Smith in Port Harcourt guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 19.42 GMT

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."

The sum consists of $120m (£77m) in penalties and the repatriation of $130m (£83m) trapped in Switzerland, he added.

Babafemi said he expected Nigeria's attorney general Mohammed Adoke to ratify the decision . "I can tell you authoritatively that an agreement has been reached."

Several Nigerian newspapers added that Bush and Baker took part in negotiations through conference calls with Adoke and other officials, but Babafemi could not confirm this.

Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to US charges that it paid $180m in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6bn in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas project in the delta. KBR and Halliburton reached a $579m settlement in America but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.

Last week, the EFCC charged Halliburton chief executive David Lesar, Cheney, and two other executives. It also filed charges against Halliburton as a company, which was headed by Cheney during the 1990s, and four associated businesses.

Campaigners in the Niger delta expressed disappointment at the plea bargain. Celestine AkpoBari, programme officer at Social Action Nigeria, said: "I would have loved to see Dick Cheney in chains in our court and facing justice in our prisons. That would have been a very big point that would have lifted Nigeria out of its woes."

Kentebe Ebiaridor, a project assistant at Environment Rights Action, suggested that Bush and Baker took part to protect America's huge oil interests in the region. "They are trying not to jeopardise the relationship," he said. "But if Dick Cheney is guilty, he should be brought to book."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec...alliburton