[THS] Bush Sr., James Baker Get Nigeria to Drop Cheney Bribery Charges

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http://www.truth-out.org/bush-sr-jamesbaker-instrumental-getting-nigeria-drop-bribery-charges-against-cheney66049

Bush Sr., James Baker Instrumental in Getting Nigeria to Drop Bribery Charges
Against Cheney

Friday 17 December 2010

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report

Bush Sr., James Baker Instrumental in Getting Nigeria to Drop Bribery Charges
Against Cheney
Dick Cheney recently faced bribery charges related to $180 million in bribes that
executives working for Halliburton's former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root paid to
Nigerian government officials between 1994 and 2004. (Image: Lance Page / t r u t h
o u t; Adapted: Kristin Fitzsimmons / Wikimedia)

Former President George H.W. Bush and ex-Secretary of State James Baker were
part of a negotiating team that convinced Nigerian government officials to drop
bribery charges against Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the oil services firm he led prior
to becoming vice president.

Bush and Baker, whose law firm was hired by Halliburton in 2004 to handle the
bribery allegations, participated in conference call discussions with senior Nigerian
government officials, including the country's attorney general, Mohammed Adoke,
last weekend on behalf of Cheney in an attempt to work out a settlement, according
to a report published by an African news agency.

The negotiations took place in London and included Halliburton represenatives.

On Friday, Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), the agency that filed the 16-count indictment last week, said the
case against Cheney, Halliburton and several other current and former executives has
been "formally dropped."

Earlier this week, Babafemi said Halliburton agreed during negotiation talks to a "plea
bargain" and to "pay $250 million in fines in lieu of prosecution." He said the Nigerian
government accepted the terms of the settlement.

Last week, after the indictment was filed in Abuja, Nigeria's capitol, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said, "We do not believe that there will be a basis for further action
(requiring Cheney to respond to the charges), but we will look into it."

Moreover, Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, told
reporters during a conference call last week that the US government was closely
following the case against Cheney and had already engaged in discussions about it
with Nigerian authorities.

As Truthout previously reported, the charges revolve around $180 million in bribes
executives who worked for Halliburton's former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root
(KBR) paid to Nigerian government officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for
$6 billion in construction contracts for the Bonny Island natural gas liquefaction plant.
Nigeria is Africa's largest crude oil producer. [Click here for a complete timeline.]

KBR, which also has handled lucrative US government support contracts for US
troops in Iraq and elsewhere, was spun off from Halliburton in 2007 into a separate
company. Nigerian officials had also charged KBR in the bribery case.

The bribes allegedly went to the notoriously corrupt Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha
and some of his subordinates and were allegedly laundered through UK lawyer
Jeffrey Tesler, who served as a consultant to KBR after it was formed in a 1998
merger that Cheney engineered between Halliburton and Dresser Industries. Tesler
was hired in 1995 as an agent of a four-company joint venture that was awarded
four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts by Nigeria LNG Ltd.,
(NLNG). Tesler was indicted last year by the Department of Justice, which has been
conducting its own probe into the matter, and he is fighting extradition to the US.

Baker's alleged involvement in the settlement talks is not surprising given that his law
firm, Baker Botts, was hired by Halliburton in 2004 to conduct an internal probe into
the bribery scandal. During the investigation, James Doty, a partner at Baker Botts
who led the probe, "discovered" notes written by former KBR employees indicating
the firm "may" have bribed Nigerian government officials in exchange for lucrative
contracts. Doty, served as general counsel of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) under Bush senior.

More recently, the SEC had questioned Cheney during its two-year-long probe of
Halliburton's accounting irregularities and concluded that he should not be held
responsible for what went on behind the scenes at the company he ran between
1995 and 2000.

Truthout was unable to reach spokespeople for Bush and Baker. A Halliburton
spokesperson declined to comment.

The payment to the Nigerian government will bring an immediate end to the bribery
and corruption charges against Halliburton, Cheney and several of the company's
current and former executives.

Babafemi added that the payment consists of $120 million in penalties and the
repatriation of $130 million "trapped in Switzerland," and he expects Adoke to
approve of the deal as early as today.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced that Tesler's associate,
Wojciech J. Chodan, the former vice president to KBR's UK subsidiary, pleaded guilty
to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for in his role in the bribery
scandal.

Chodan, who was extradited to the United States from England, is scheduled to be
sentenced in February and faces a maximum five years in federal prison.

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Albert "Jack" Stanley, who Cheney had named chief executive of KBR in 1998, was
also named in the indictment filed by Nigerian anti-corruption officials. Charges
against him have also been dropped.

Stanley was a close associate of Cheney's. The former vice president promoted him in
1998 to head KBR and told the Middle East Economic Digest in 1999 that having
Stanley at the helm of the Halliburton subsidiary "has helped us tremendously."

In September 2008, Stanley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail
fraud to settle charges related to a separate kickback scheme and for conspiring to
violate FCPA in connection with bribery case.

According to the DOJ's plea agreement, Stanley started paying bribes in 1995, the
year Cheney was named chief executive of the corporation, and ended when Stanley
was fired in 2004.  Stanley faces seven years in prison and nearly $11 million in
restitution payments. He remains free on bail pending a sentencing hearing
scheduled for January.

Last year, KBR pleaded guilty to violating FCPA and admitted that it paid $180 million
in "consulting fees" to Tesler and a Japanese trading company for use in bribing
Nigerian government officials. KBR paid a $402 million fine and Halliburton paid $177
million in civil penalties as part of its plea deal, which was handled by Baker's law
firm.

Nigerians Condemn Settlement

While Nigeria government officials may be satisfied with the settlement agreement,
the same cannot be said for some of the country's citizens and activists who had
hoped to see the former vice president respond to the charges.

"I would have loved to see Dick Cheney in chains in our court and facing justice in
our prisons," said Celestine AkpoBari, program officer at Social Action Nigeria. "That
would have been a very big point that would have lifted Nigeria out of its woes."

In a statement, Emmanuel Ulayi, executive director of the Civic Duties Awareness
Initiative (CIDAI), an organization that ensures "Nigerians adhere to their civic
responsibilities, comdemned the decision.

Uliya said the settlement is evidence that “the fight against corruption is dead and
have never been real in Nigeria." He said if the Nigerian government was serious
about rooting out corruption "it would not have reach this kind of understanding."

Owei Lakemfa, a columnist for Nigeria's Daily Vanguard, said Friday Cheney "is an
international crook who should be in jail in his country, Iraq, Netherlands,
Afghanistan, Britain, Azerbaijan or in Nigeria...But unfortunately, the scales of justice
are not balanced, so he will escape justice with his loot."