Bush Sr., James Baker Instrumental in Getting Nigeria to Drop Bribery Charges Against Cheney
Friday 17 December 2010
by: t r u t h o u t | Report

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.
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."
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Comments
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Oh, but so many of us know
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:38 — Morgan Sheridan (not verified)Oh, but so many of us know for sure what a criminal he really is. Small consolation, but we take what we can get these days.
Sad! The crook gets away
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:40 — granny (not verified)Sad! The crook gets away with yet another crime, and the Skull and Bones crowd continues its infamous, secretive malfeasance. Perhaps some other country will take up the challenge. If the US will not prosecute some other more honest government might. Would that not be wonderful!!!
So Cheney, that greasy worm,
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:42 — GT66 (not verified)So Cheney, that greasy worm, slithers away from justice again. Wonderful.
Shows how important it is to
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:43 — Anonymous (not verified)Shows how important it is to have friends in high (or low, depending on you pov) places!
TYPICAL INSIDERS DOING THEIR
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:47 — cheyennebode (not verified)TYPICAL INSIDERS DOING THEIR ROUTINE...ALL THE FUDGING THAT AMERICA HAS WITNESSED IS THE FACT...THAT BUSINESS HAS TO BE OVERSEEN BY GOVERNMENT..THE OLD SAW THAT THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT IS BUSINESS..HAS BEEN CORRUPED INTO BUSINESS IS A THREAT TO GOVERNMENT...BUSINESS WILL LOSE ITS CONTROL WHEN AMERICA ADOPTS THE ENGLISH MODEL OF OUTLAWING CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLICIANS....LET'S HAVE A POLL DONE..ASKING THE AMERICANS IF THEY WANT CONTRIBUTIONS OUTLAWED....
I would have thought that
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:57 — Rowland (not verified)I would have thought that waterboarding would be appropriate in this case, but inasmuch as the Bush Cabal has the chump change payoff....why not?
Why isn't the US putting Cheney in court and in jail? Don't get it. I agree, Nancy.
Does this now make Cheney a KNOWN CRIMINAL? this was a fait accompli, Rick.
But of course, Dick Cheney
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 18:25 — Suom (not verified)But of course, Dick Cheney is above the law. He cannot be held accountable to the laws that apply to everyone else. That simply would not do. That might slow him down or get in the way of progress.
I guess I should put it: "progress."
This is another pitiful
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 18:33 — Anonymous (not verified)This is another pitiful example of our dual system of justice. Us little people get long sentences for minor crimes and the plutocrats can get away with murder unless they screw another member of the plutocracy. Screwing another plutocrat is the only time those folks will ever see the inside of a jail.
So they bribed them with
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 18:37 — jand55 (not verified)So they bribed them with $250 mil to settle bribery charges. Classic Cheney...
Cheney will never say "I am
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 19:04 — Doug Troutman (not verified)Cheney will never say "I am not a crook!", because he takes great pleasure in flaunting the fact that he IS! The same applies to wife Lynne and her "association" with Lockheed and corrupt contracts there with OUR government.
No doubt the Nigerians who
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 19:41 — Anonymous (not verified)No doubt the Nigerians who dropped the charges received special messages that if they didn't drop the charges, they'd be found DEAD. Standard operating procedure for these sick psychos.
The Wiki leaks revealed that
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:02 — Tim (not verified)The Wiki leaks revealed that the Obama administration interceded on behalf of Bush to fend off war crimes prosecution by the Spanish government. The Spanish, who finally succeeded in holding Pinochet accountable for his crimes, sadly presented the best chance of recovering our country's fumble. Obama's monumental blunder of not prosecuting the crimes of the Bush administration has not been rewarded by gratitude and a collective " phew " by the wing nuts. It instead emboldened them and disgraced our country as hypocritical, espousing " freedom " , "democracy " and the rule of law, while torturing and wrongly imprisoning innocent people.
bought and paid for REVERSE
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:09 — Anonymous (not verified)bought and paid for REVERSE JUSTICE, with our tax dollars.
bullshit!!! CORRUPTION!!
LONG LIVE WIKILEAKS!!! A TRUE PATIOT!!
THE TRUTH AND DEMOCRACY GO HAND AND HAND!!
CHENEY YOU ARE WORTHLESS IN MY BOOK
Cheney is a higher-priority
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:10 — David (not verified)Cheney is a higher-priority villain than Osama bin Laden for many people around the world.
Even the FBI doesn't want bin Laden for 9/11, but the number of innocent deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the torture victims that Cheney (and Bush) has been responsible for, makes bin Laden's terror track record pale in comparison.
"The bribes allegedly went
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:18 — Anonymous (not verified)"The bribes allegedly went to the notoriously corrupt Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha...." So, Nigeria had a corrupt government and to play ball you had to bribe officials. Yet this is supposed to be Cheney's fault?
Afghanistan also has a notoriously corrupt government, and we're paying for it!
Gary Webb's part in exposing
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:45 — JadeQueen (not verified)Gary Webb's part in exposing government-imported drugs earned him an official suicide with three bullets in his head. Catherine Austin Fitts and some of his other friends still live to tell his story. In Catherine' story, they allegedly tried to put her in an elite-owned private prison, possibly the same one in the south where Marc Emery is now (not sure I spelled the name right, in fact, I hope I didn't). The beef industry could not put Oprah in jail because she is surely worth more than they are, but the picture of our bill of rights is not pretty these days except for guys like Cheney, for which it is irrelevant, just a piece of paper, as GSB reputedly said.
Keep an eye on Cheney's
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:49 — Anonymous (not verified)Keep an eye on Cheney's Income Tax returns, IRS. Capone et. al. were brought in under charges in this area. What' s good enough for organized crime, organized by Italian Immagrants. is good enough for the WASP Mafia, No?
AS PER NORMAL, THERE IS NOR
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:53 — Anonymous (not verified)AS PER NORMAL, THERE IS NOR WILL THE EVER BE ANY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THESE ASSHOLES
sickening
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:53 — jack van Dijk (I am not afraid) (not verified)sickening
Everyone connected to the
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 20:56 — Anonymous (not verified)Everyone connected to the crime is going to jail, except Cheney. I wonder, is that because the Bush family doesn't want the guy that is on the heart machine willing to drop a dime as to where the money came from? After all THE BUSH FAMILY owns Haliburton. So shouldn't the OWNERS of the corporation be up on charges? Does the Bush family want Mr. & Mrs. average citizen to believe some company employee opened the vault at Haliburton and took $180 MILLION out of petty cash? It is bad enough the Republicans are able to portray the Bush family in a positive light for a minor infraction in Nigeria - but they also are able to paper over all the deaths of soldiers as a direct result of the WMD fiasco. My opinion, evil like this is what the republican party has delivered to what once was a great country. Let's demand the corporation be prosecuted, and hanged.
Is there a family with more
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 21:16 — Anonymous (not verified)Is there a family with more corruption than the Bushes? Yes, the Cheneys. Life is good when you can buy your way out of jail but how about hell? I wonder who died to give Dick his heart? He never had one that worked before. Was Dick covered by the taxpayers medical program? Would hate Dick to have to pay for anything. History will prove them all to be murderers and thieves.
How about ALL of us refuse
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 21:28 — Anonymous (not verified)How about ALL of us refuse to pay tax. That is sure fire way to bring these crooks down.
he would have got his heart
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 22:12 — remo (not verified)he would have got his heart from the evil Hashim Thaci in Kosovo. The KLA Drenica group harvest body parts for poxy warmongers like cheney- pay back for all those NATO flights supplying mujaheddin mercenaries on demand back in the day.
Bush Sr. and James Baker
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 22:20 — billnbillieskid (not verified)Bush Sr. and James Baker should be charged with aiding and abetting Cheney in his nefarious deeds. Is there NO level to which they will NOT sink? WHEN, in the Bush/ Cheney World, does anyone EVER pay their OWN bill? Infamy! Disgrace! Egregious Behavior by officials in HIGH Public Office. THIS is what the Bush/Cheney Regime has brought to our Nation.
A plea is a conviction, in
Fri, 12/17/2010 - 23:18 — skidude (not verified)A plea is a conviction, in all technicality. So yes, it is a admission of guilt, for all concerned!
Would've interesting to have this one go to trial, wonder what kind of evidence the Nigerians had?
Whatever they had, must of been very, very incriminating, or else you would not of seen the fourth Reich, jump through the plea deal hoop so fast!
Now can you see the evil in
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 00:18 — Anonymous (not verified)Now can you see the evil in his face? No question he is an evil man.
More bribery and obstruction
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 02:48 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)More bribery and obstruction of justice to sidestep bribery and obstruction of justice. What else is new? It only gets worse and worse, with these mass-criminals being allowed to get away with mass-crimes, mass-murder, mass-imprisonment-without-true-due-process-of-law, mass-torture, mass-extortion and mass-obstruction-of-justice, and protected by and from same all the way up to the Oval Office. So when are "We, the People" going to rise up en masse against all of this mass-insanity before it's too late, if it isn't already too late?
We moan, wail, and weep
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 03:52 — Anonymous (not verified)We moan, wail, and weep about things like this, then feel that somehow we are protesting sufficiently. We're not.
Next futile step: Saying oooh, I'll never vote for another Republican and switch to the Dems. Fact is both parties are colluding in the fascist oligarchy that actually controls our destiny.
So far there is no third party that will challenge the status quo, and as an electorate we are too afraid to support an independent. This attitude plays right into the desires of the entrenched politicians of both sides. Get it?
A third party candidate such as Nader, Feingold, Sanders might at the very least throw a wrench into the system and show that we are wise to and fed up with business as usual.
But no, the next election will divert us enough to quell our serious discontent under the false pretense that there is actually a difference between the candidates. Both parties are in thrall to Big Money---Wall St, Big Banks, the military/industrial complex, Corporations, the Zionists. (No, I am not anti-Semitic, just opposed to those in Israel who foment war.)
Keep reading Truth-Out and also go to the site Whatreallyhappened. Welcome Assange and his Wickileaks and other whistle-blowers. Face the tragic reality.
It's a jungle out there!
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 04:43 — futhark (not verified)It's a jungle out there! Rule of law means nothing! It's all about who you know and who you can bribe in one way or another. Dick Cheney has a lot of wealthy and influential friends and probably knows a lot of dirt about them and others, so he can use these connections to avoid responsibility for the atrocities he has actuated.
Absolute corruption corrupts
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 05:22 — David (not verified)Absolute corruption corrupts absolutely. What a severe miscarriage of justice. Disgustingly sick how t these 'officials" in high places, no matter who they are and where they are, can escape their just rewards.
Cheney is clearly in is own rat's nest.
Hopeless
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 06:48 — Anonymous (not verified)Hopeless corruption!
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."
A fate befitting Cheney
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 09:17 — Christopher S. Lugar (not verified)A fate befitting Cheney would be that his black heart explodes in his chest... and he chokes slowly and agonizingly on his own blood while his life's deeds flash one by one through his pathological mind.
This $250,000 is clearly
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 09:38 — Anonymous (not verified)This $250,000 is clearly bribery. Cheney should be prosecuted in the US under FCPA for the first case of bribery, and Baker and Bush Sr for this second case. The fact that Cheney is off the hook in Nigeria now is irrelevant. Justice dept, get to work!
This $250,000 is clearly
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 09:42 — Anonymous (not verified)This $250,000 is clearly bribery.
Oops, i meant $250 million.
Even from the great beyond,
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 11:13 — MK Ultra (not verified)Even from the great beyond, the Bush family continue to screw the American people.
I guess these Republican
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 15:41 — Liced-christs (not verified)I guess these Republican criminals are just too powerful and rich to be dealt with appropriately. What a statement about American society that they can commit grievous crimes oversees but rest assured that their own government will be complicit in those crimes by not trying them at home.
I am just reading the
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 16:22 — Anonymous (not verified)I am just reading the chapters about Cheney in the book Family of Secrets by Russ Baker so am not at all surprised by Bush's involvement.
Family of Secrets is about the Bush family and their relationships with oil, banks, government and secret service since before the 1900s (railroads were in then, too) and its impact not only on the US but world-wide.
If you read it, you'll never see our country and our government the same way again; it has the Bush footprint (and I do mean "foot") all over it from the time of Sam Bush.
Eye-opening, hair-raising and stomach churning. You'll never want another Bush in the White House. Even so, that will not stop them.
Dick Cheney and executives
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 19:54 — John J. Coghlan (not verified)Dick Cheney and executives working for Halliburton were being indited because they had good evidence that they were guilty of bribing government officials. George Bush and James Baker helped to make a cash settlement to have criminal charges dropped. I always thought that paying money to have criminal charges drooped constituted bribery in itself.
Since G.H.W Bush was in the
Sun, 12/19/2010 - 00:24 — Mel Smith (not verified)Since G.H.W Bush was in the CIA he has been corrupted and is the leader of the corruption in our Gov't as he got his Crooked Son slipped in as our Fake President through the Supreme Court and then in 2004 they run all the votes to there office and changed them. Mike Connely did the computer work for them and them they caused his plane to crash , to get rid of him, as he was about to spill the beans on that corrupt deal.
If you want to see just how corrupt our US Gov't is go read this article, as Sheri Seymour did some deep investigation and wrote a book about it
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Last-Circle-Welcome-t-by-Ed-Encho-101213-618.html
The Octopus spreads through out our gov't and still is completely corrupted.
This article is very enlightening
Nigeria,wasn't that a German
Sun, 12/19/2010 - 13:14 — not verified (not verified)Nigeria,wasn't that a German colony at one tyme,Ethopia,,the disputed islands around Korea,China,Kosovo,living space to the "EAST",,,imperial control of the worlds maritime ports,,,a "continental" empire always sabotaughed in favor of the maritime,starting to notice a pattern,vacum gap "pass"isn't just for ex colonial entities,powers or holding companies anymore,the "program for a capitalist centurian,Pkno nothing Shultz,and all the rest of that peculiar Atlantcist "CABAL",impervios to any mitigating factor/ss full speed ahead,damn the torpedoes and sink the bizzMAORK all rolled into one giant monster magnet and inheiratience
Check your history.
Sun, 12/19/2010 - 22:45 — John of Perth (not verified)Check your history.
Nigeria was part of the British empire.
I guess Cheney was tring to offset Shell's and BP's strnagle hold there. All totally not good for the common citizens of the Delta.
Fantastic, the people
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 08:50 — mysterioso (not verified)Fantastic, the people accused of bribery are bribing the same government to drop the bribery charges. Now do you see how politics works.
Jade, your post reminding us
Tue, 01/11/2011 - 13:46 — Frances in California (not verified)Jade, your post reminding us of Gary Webb sends a chill . . . I'm so worried they'll try something like this on the captive Bradley Manning; look at what they've done to Assange already (?!). If this is a just universe, when they try, the bullet will find Cheney instead.
Tim, it's not Obama's gig;
Tue, 01/11/2011 - 13:49 — Frances in California Again (not verified)Tim, it's not Obama's gig; it's Holder's, and the jellyfish-i-tude of his spine is well known.
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