Hector Igbikiowubo
9 September 2008
DESPITE last week's admission of guilt by a former executive of Kellogg Brown & Root to having participated in a decade-long scheme to pay $182 million worth of bribes to contractors to build Nigeria's premier liquefied natural gas plant on Bonny Island, the Federal Government and security agencies have kept sealed lips and taken no action, raising questions about commitment to probity and transparency.
Oil mast
Albert "Jack" Stanley, 65, of Houston pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Houston last Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, the Justice Department said.
A one-time chairman of Houston-based Kellogg Brown & Root - now known as KBR - Stanley played a leading role in hiring so-called consultants to funnel bribes to top Nigerian government officials, Justice officials said.
When contacted, Femi Babafemi, spokesman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said he needed time to determine if the commission was indeed investigating the matter, adding 'you know this is an old matter and I need to contact those in charge. Please give me time to do that'.
Efforts to contact TSKJ, the consortium which constructed the NLNG trains 1,2,3,4, & 5 proved abortive at the time of filling this report.
Chief Dan Etete served as Petroleum Minister under the General Sani Abacha administration, when negotiations for the construction of the LNG plant was determined.
Stanley also admitted he received $10.8 million in kickbacks from a "consultant" he directed Kellogg Brown & Root to hire to help land similar projects around the globe.
As part of his plea agreement, Stanley faces a sentence of seven years in prison and the payment of $10.8 million in restitution. A sentencing date has not been set.
Stanley also reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will cooperate with the agency's probe into the bribery scheme.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said Stanley's plea deal "demonstrates that corporate executives who bribe foreign government officials in return for lucrative business deals can expect to face prosecution."
Stanley attorney Lee Kaplan said his client "has been cooperating with the government for quite some time by answering their questions. He will continue to do so. ... He wants to get this behind him and get some closure on this matter."
The case stems from the construction of a $6 billion gas liquefaction plant on Nigeria's Bonny Island. Between 1995 and 2004, a Madeira, Portugal-based consortium known as TSKJ was awarded four separate contracts for work on that complex.
One of the consortium's four partners was Britain's M.W. Kellogg Ltd., a majority of which was controlled by what is now KBR, according to KBR filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Stanley, served as Kellogg Brown & Root's senior representative on TSKJ's steering committee, the Justice Department said in a court filing.
And during what were described as "cultural meetings," Stanley and other co-conspirators schemed to hire consultants who would funnel bribes to "top-level" Nigerian government officials and to enable the consortium to win the contracts.
Justice Department officials say Stanley met with three, successive office holders of a key position in the Nigerian government to learn whom the consortium partners should negotiate with in order to pay bribes.
Stanley admitted Wednesday the consortium paid $132 million to a Gibraltar-based consulting firm controlled by a British citizen and another $50 million to a Japanese company, money that was to be used to pay bribes to Nigerian officials.
The Justice Department documents do not name the British citizen or Gibraltar company. But KBR, in its filings with the SEC, note the consortium had entered into a series of agreements with Jeffrey Tesler and Tri-Star Investments.
Stanley's plea agreement is just the latest in a wide-ranging, six-year probe that has involved authorities in France, Nigeria, Switzerland and Britain, as well as the U.S.
M.W. Kellogg first joined the TSKJ consortium in 1990. At that time, Kellogg was owned by Dallas-based Dresser Industries.
In 1998, Dresser was purchased by Halliburton, then led by Cheney. And Kellogg was merged with Halliburton's Brown & Root to form Kellogg Brown & Root.
Cheney stepped down as Halliburton's chief executive officer in 2000, to join then Texas Gov. George W. Bush's presidential ticket.
But in February 1999 - under Cheney's watch - Stanley and other joint venture officials traveled to Nigeria to meet with a high-ranking government official and confirm that the British consultant could serve as an intermediary to negotiate bribe amounts, according to court documents filed by the SEC.
The following month, Stanley "and others at KBR," together with other joint venture officials, met with a Nigerian representative in London to negotiate a bribery amount.
"Stanley and others agreed to pay $32.5 million," the SEC court documents say.Within days, the joint venture was awarded a $1.2 billion contract.
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Another switch and bait. First they were, to test where the wind was blowing, now they wont, having seen the subliminal message sent by Condi Rice on her recent visit to Libya. A country like Nigeria where mere crude oil pipes lines blow up regularly wants to mess with nuclear technology. And, how much would that cost aside from another rounds of 60 billion dollar bandied about by Shamsudeen to cover infrastructural development in the next 6 years. Do Sham even know how much a billion dollar is talkless of $60B which is barely more than half our current GDP… [Read Full Text]
A BRIBE OF $182 BILLIONS IS GREAT !! MAYBE THE GAS IS ALREADY SOLD OUT LIKE BAKASSI,BEFORE PRODUCTION.NEWS HAS IT THAT AN EXTENSION OF NIGERIAN GAS PIPILINE ACROSS THE SAHARA DESERT TO EUROPE IS NOW IN PROGRESS.PLEASE,OUR NEWSME N,AND SECURITY AGENCIES SHOULD INVESTIGATE THIS RIGHT NOW. LET IT NOT BE LIKE THE BAKASSI DEAL WHICH WAS SEALED UP BY THE MILITARY DURING THE CIVIL WAR,YEARS BEFORE THE ISSUE WENT TO THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE WHERE IT RECEIVED BLESSING FOR THE VERY PEOPLE:(OBJ&CO}WHO SEALED THE DEAL DURING THE CIVIL WAR.THE LEADERS OF THIS GENERATION HAVE A QUESTION TO ANSWER TO… [Read Full Text]
It is imperative that we know the name(s)of the recepient of the bribe. After all, it takes two to tango, you know - the giver and the taker are both indictable offenders. We'll like to see what kind of punishment the Nigerian official(s) that was bribed gets in the Nigerian legal system so as to set precedent for future offenders as the world is watching what will happen in Nigeria regarding this matter. What is more, our probing Senators are yet to release the names of the 419 kingpins among them. How can we beileve anything that comes out of… [Read Full Text]