EFCC arrests 12 over Halliburton bribery case

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has raided the offices of United States firm Halliburton and arrested 12 people in a bribery case involving former Halliburton unit KBR Inc, a spokesman said on Saturday.
The EFCC said it had detained 10 Halliburton staff for questioning and one senior employee each from oil services firms Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited and Technip Offshore Nigeria Limited.”We are still looking for the (local) managing director of Halliburton,” Reuters quoted EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi as saying on Saturday.Those detained in Thursday‘s raid, carried out with the assistance of armed police, included Giuseppe Surace, Saipem‘s country manager, and Frank Pliya from Technip, as well as a mixture of expatriates and Nigerians, Babafemi said.Houston-based engineering firm KBR pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas project.KBR and Halliburton reached a $579 million settlement in the US, but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.KBR split from oilfield services giant Halliburton in 2007.A former aide to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded not guilty in October to six counts of money laundering in relation to the case between 2002-2003, including accepting $1.5 million in bribe payments.His case was adjourned to December 16.



Source:punchng