Lagos — United States prosecutors yesterday launched extradition proceedings against a Briton, Jeffrey Tesler, alleged to be the key figure and linkman in an international bribery scandal involving contracts for the construction and expansion of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Bonny, Rivers State.

The latest move by the US coincides with the questioning and detention of two key witnesses by the investigative panel set up by the federal government to unearth those involved in the Halliburton bribery scandal.

Halliburton, a US construction firm was said to have given $180 million bribes to top Nigerian politicians and government officials, including those of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to win the contract for the construction of the LNG plant.

The bribe, in which three former Nigerian presidents were also said to have benefited, allegedly spanned the period from 1995 when the nearly $7 billion contract was awarded to 2004 and possibly beyond.

After more than five years of investigations covering half a dozen countries, Tesler was arrested early this year at the behest of US authorities and accused of being the "bagman" who conveyed the $180m in bribes to the Nigerian officials.

If the extradition bid succeeds, Tesler will face trial and possible jail in Texas. Tesler appeared at Horse-ferry Road Magistrates Court in London yesterday where hearing into the extradition request commenced, reported the London-based Guardian newspaper.

A US arrest warrant has been issued for a second Briton, a former company executive, Wojciech Chodan, also accused of breaching the foreign corrupt practices act in the Halliburton scandal.

Legal sources in UK say British prosecutors are willing to hand over Tesler and Chodan.

Tesler has hired William Clegg, a prominent British defence QC whose clients have included the man eventually acquitted last year of television broadcaster, Jill Dando's murder, Barry George.

"Mr. Tesler's stated position is that he strongly denies any wrongdoing and has acted at all times within the law," his solicitors said yesterday.

The case against Tesler was outlined in a 29-page indictment issued by the US department of justice.

He is accused of spending a decade, between 1994 and 2004, conspiring to break America's foreign corrupt practices act, in a case, which has already led to one of the largest corruption fines ever levied against a US corporation.

London-based company executives seeking construction contracts are alleged to have described Tesler as their "cultural adviser."

According to part of the US indictment, Tesler is alleged to have "arranged for $1m in $100 bills, which was stacked into a leather case and delivered to a politician's hotel room in order to fund the Nigerian election campaigns in 2003 that returned President Olusegun Obasanjo to power."

Tesler, a former partner in a north London high street firm, holds Israeli dual nationality and a Swiss court has revealed that $2.26m of his assets has been moved into family accounts in Israel.

Investigations into the bribe scandal were first launched in France in 2003 and then taken up in Washington by a small team led by Mark Mendelsohn of the US department of justice. The UK Serious Fraud Office gave help, but little progress was made.

The case was politically sensitive for years in the US because former US vice president Dick Cheney, although not personally linked to the alleged bribe payments, previously ran Halliburton, whose subsidiary led the consortium.

Last year the Texan chief executive of Halliburton's construction subsidiary, Jack Stanley, was forced to admit taking personal "kickbacks" from his company's Nigerian slush funds. Now facing seven years in jail, he testified about the bribery in the hope of a reduced sentence.

Halliburton agreed in February this year to pay a record $579 million fine, while its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, admitted meeting and agreeing to bribe "three successive former holders of a top-level office" in Nigeria.

Swiss courts have announced that they would overrule legal objections and release bank records, including those linked to Tesler.

The Swiss accounts include cash linked to Tesler's Gibraltar-registered vehicle, Tristar, and money passing through other secretive offshore entities in Panama, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos islands and the Seychelles.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, one of the ex-heads of state suspected to have benefited from the bribe has been forced to defend himself publicly from allegations of corruption since the Tesler indictment was made public.

Accused last month on US television by investigative journalist Lowell Bergman of having been implicated by Stanley, he responded: "I've been investigated and reinvestigated and reinvestigated. Nobody can find corruption around me."

Obasanjo subsequently told the BBC the allegations against him personally were "absolute nonsense I do not say that people in my government were not corrupt, but I am not corrupt."

The developments in the NLNG contract scandal highlight repeated allegations from other countries that Britain has been soft on overseas bribery.

"British taxpayer helped finance part of the Nigerian deal and some of the evidence suggests key operations may have taken place in London to avoid strict US anti-corruption laws.

"MW Kellogg Ltd., then a subsidiary of Halliburton, was eligible for UK taxpayer assistance because it was UK-registered and based at the Kellogg Tower in Greenford, west London," the Guardian newspaper wrote on Thursday.

Just last month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said that it had quizzed some Nigerians linked to the Halliburton scandal.

However, the anti-graft body did not name the affected former public officials whose testimonies it said were recorded.

It also said that it had written to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), requesting a copy of the US court judgment in which the former Nigerian public officials were indicted.

Aondoakaa is reported to have made two trips to the US last month, in an apparent attempt to get American authorities to release details of the case to him, amid growing criticisms against the federal government's lack of interest in prosecuting the suspects.

Meanwhile, the Mike Okiro investigative panel set up by the federal government to probe the Halliburton bribery scandal has questioned and detained a one time Chief of Air Staff, and a relation of a serving governor from the North-central zone.

THISDAY learnt that the panel has made progress in unmasking the identity of the culprits.

Sources said that the former air force chief served in the Second Republic while the other suspect is the younger brother of a prominent first term serving governor in a north-central state.

"The investigative panel has also invited and quizzed some other highly placed Nigerians, with the hope of getting facts from them on who demanded for what, and the exact amount each person got from the bribe.

Since the panel started sitting, some 15 persons, including serving and retired top civil servants have been quizzed," a source disclosed yesterday.

The source said that a further list of about 35 Nigerians has been drawn up for questioning starting next week, "and the police placed on standby to arrest any recalcitrant person invited to help with the investigation."