G. Johnson
The corruption charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other corporate executives accused of bribing the government to secure a profitable natural gas deal has been dropped by Nigerian authorities. In exchange for the case’s dismissal, Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, has agreed to pay $250 million to the Nigerian government.
About $130m of the money would be repatriated from foreign bank accounts. AFP news agency reported that the money in foreign accounts was part of the bribery scheme, but had been frozen before it had reached Nigeria
According to earlier cases brought in the US, KBR (which split from Halliburton in 2007) executives paid more than $180m to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 to secure about $6bn contracts for building a liquefied natural gas plant.
Last year, KBR was fined $402 million by the U.S. government after officials pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges.
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