Dick Cheney to Face Criminal Charges

/in /by

Not for war crimes or torture, mind you. But for the bribery allegedly committed while at Halliburton that has been bubbling along for years. (h/t scribe)

Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said.Indictments will be lodged in a Nigerian court “in the next three days,” Godwin Obla, prosecuting counsel at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said in an interview today at his office in Abuja, the capital. An arrest warrant for Cheney “will be issued and transmitted through Interpol,” the world’s biggest international police organization, he said.

Peter Long, Cheney’s spokesman, said he couldn’t immediately comment when contacted today and said he would respond later to an e-mailed request for comment.

Obla said charges will be filed against current and former chief executive officers of Halliburton, including Cheney, who was CEO from 1995 to 2000, and its former unit KBR Inc., based in Houston, Texas; Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield- services provider; Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company; and Saipem Construction Co., a unit of Eni.

You see? I knew that new pulse-less ticker would handily allow Cheney to live long enough to face charges on something!

Stay tuned for the leaked WikiLeak cables showing the Obama Administration pressuring Nigeria to drop these charges.

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  2. Elliott says:

    An arrest warrant for Cheney “will be issued and transmitted through Interpol,” the world’s biggest international police organization, he said.

    so, will Interpol go after him with the same gusto as Assange?

  3. tjbs says:

    If he goes down like Capone on a lesser charge so be it.To see clips of him in the dock answering to anyone other than himself, well that would be kinda priceless now wouldn’t it ?

  4. Mary says:

    In the time I have I can’t find any of the links I was looking for, but a lot of investigation into this case took place in the UK, bc the lawyer the JV used was there and they used a US dealmaker who is a UK resident. While Bush was still in office, there were a lot of documents being seized in London IIRC – but I can’t find those links.

    While I can’t find the ones I want, this is one that you might want to add in for context.

    Thumbnail – the allegations are that 180 mill was allocated for bribes and supposedly the bribes were to be doled out by the UK lawer, Jeffrey Tesler. While the US was pursuing a case in Houston it supposedly (I’m sure this had nothing to do with the raids in Britain that I may be falsely recalling) *discovered* that Tesler had only distributed 50 of the 180 million and had “shorted” his bribery recipients.

    The US got the Swiss to put a hold on the 130 mill in the account. Nigeria would like that 130 mill itself. It kind of needs to amp up and ramp up to get to the money.

    “… Tesler’s account in Switzerland has been frozen, following the intervention of the US Department of Justice.

    The Federal Government is planning to get Tesler extradited from Britain whenever the trial of the 15 suspects begins.”

    JMO, but I think Tesler and the shot at the 130 mill are what Nigeria really wants – the US has been trying to extradite Tesler too. Nigeria changes the profile of its case and requests and gets a bargaining chip by adding Cheney to the list.

    Meanwhile, Jack Stanley, who took a plea in 2008, is still – STILL – out free, while he helps with the case.

    http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2010/9/22/jack-stanley-free-until-2011.html

    Former KBR boss Albert “Jack” Stanley, who pleaded guilty in September 2008 to a two-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit mail and wire fraud, will remain free on bail until at least January 19, 2011.

    You can hardly blame the Nigerians for wanting to get at the 130 million. After all, the US has been letting people like Cheney and others buy their way out of criminal cases via “disgorgement” from the companies to the tune of 1.28 billion or so. You’d almost think the country whose officials were stealing from it out to get something – 130 million, a head on a platter, ya know, something.

    With Stanley’s help, the DOJ and SEC have recovered $1.28 billion in FCPA-related penalties and disgorgement so far from the TSKJ consortium members, which KBR led when Stanley was in charge: $579 million from KBR / Halliburton, $365 million from Snamprogetti / ENI, and $338 million from Technip, with more to come from the final JV partner, JGC.

  5. Mary says:

    Also worth a look is this FCPA blog post that has gone up in the last day or so and I hadn’t seen.

    http://fcpablog.squarespace.com/blog/2010/12/1/report-chodan-extradition-coming-soon.html

    It cites to this Guardian article:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/dec/01/uk-businessman-faces-extradition
    to say that Chodan is being extradited to the US within the next 10 days.

    “The British government is due to send a 72-year-old retired British businessman to the US within the next 10 days to stand trial over his alleged role in a huge international bribery scandal.”

    Tesler is also supposedly in the que to go to the US and Nigeria is probably going to lose its best shot at the 130 mill when that happens.

    Chodan has argued that almost none of the misconduct he is accused of was connected to the US and that the alleged bribery plot took place mainly in the UK or Nigeria.

    The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, which also investigated the allegations, decided that its American counterparts were best placed to put Chodan on trial.

    The Guardian is due to go to the high court next Friday to force the disclosure of official documents which would help explain that decision.

    The FCPA blog says he’s a British citizen, although I’ve seen he’s a US citizen and was a British resident as well – so I’m foggy on that. THe Guardian piece says prosecutors are alleging that he funneled 132 mill in bribes to high ranking Nigerians, which is a bit at odds with the 130 mill frozen Tesler account.

    Anyway, an interesting bit from the Guardian article is that Tesler is defending against his extradition pretty much right now:

    Meanwhile, US prosecutors and the British government are also seeking to extradite a second Briton over the same alleged conspiracy. Jeffrey Tesler, a 61-year-old north London lawyer, will seek to overturn the extradition in the High Court on tomorrow

    emph added

    Another good reason for Nigeria to try to up their ante and get their dibbs in. Just why would the US have more “right” to Tesler than Nigeria? To maybe make sure that, but-for “disgorgement” all criminal cases stop at Stanley and Tesler and don’t go upchain? Nah, couldn’t be that.

    Fun for David Cameron – after all, extradition has become, ultimately, a political game.

  7. Arbusto says:

    Stay tuned for the leaked WikiLeak cables showing the Obama Administration pressuring Nigeria to drop these charges.

    All the head scratching by the left on actions Obama has taken, in a myriad issues, and his willingness to secretly support accused torturers to avoid investigations pretty much sums up his personality and Presidency. For all his public machinations, he is supported by and in turn supports the interests of Phama, HMO’s, Wall St, and “defense” industries. To follow his actions vs rhetoric cui bono fits to a tee.

  9. SirLurksAlot says:

    and now comes the US embassy with teh international pressure a la spain & torture….the charges against Darth Cheney will not stand.

    Still, it’s librul catnip and is always nice to dream every once in a while.

  10. fatster says:

    Feinstein calls for spy charges against WikiLeaks founder

    “Count Sen. Dianne Feinstein among those who believe that the leak of tens of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables is not only embarrassing and damaging to foreign policy, but illegal.”

    LINK.

      • fatster says:

        She’s definitely not on the cutting edge of many issues. She opposed Prop 19 in CA, citing the possibility that mj would end up in children’s candy if the measure passed.

    • bobschacht says:

      It’s a sad state of affairs that Democrats think they have to be more fascist than the Republicans to prove how strong they are, when what they should be doing is defending Assange.

      Bob in AZ

      • fatster says:

        It’s tragic, all right, Bob. It seems like the struggles we’ve waged in the past were but a precursor to the one before us now.