Nigeria files bribery charges against Dick Cheney

The Nigerian government has filed charges against former US vice president Dick Cheney, who was the head of the US oil services firm Halliburton Inc, and eight others in an alleged bribery scandal related to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Nigeria.

The country's anti-corruption agency Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) filed 16 charges of corruption against Dick Cheney, Halliburton Inc, Halliburton Nigeria Limited, Kellogg Brown and Root Inc (KBR), former KBR CEO Albert Stanley, KBR CEO William Utt, Halliburton CEO David Lesar, TSKJ Nigeria Limited, and TSKJ Consortium at the high court in Abuja.

The suspects allegedly paid $132 million to Nigerian government officials through agents Jeffrey Tesler, Wojcieh Chodan, and Tri-Star Investment Ltd to secure lucrative $6-billion worth engineering, procurement, and commissioning (EPC) contracts for the LNG project in Bonny island in Nigeria.

The offence is committed under section 96(1) of the Nigerian Penal Code, and punishable under section 118.

Charges say that sometimes between 1994 and 2005 the suspects conspired with Snamprogetti Netherlands BV, French engineering services company Technip SA, and Japan Gasoline Corp to commit the criminal offence.

In an ongoing US investigation of the case by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), in June, Technip SA agreed to pay $240 million criminal penalty to resolve charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its participation in the bribing scandal to obtain the EPC contracts for the LNG project.