LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency on Tuesday charged former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during the time he served as its top official, an agency spokesman said.
The charges stem from a case involving as much as $180 million allegedly paid in bribes to Nigerian officials, said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
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Halliburton and other firms allegedly paid the bribes to win a contract to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, he said.
Terrence O’Donnell, a lawyer representing Cheney, denied the allegations.
“The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated that joint venture extensively and found no suggestion of any impropriety by Dick Cheney in his role of CEO of Halliburton,” O’Donnell said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “Any suggestion of misconduct on his part, made now, years later, is entirely baseless.”
The Halliburton case involves its former subsidiary KBR Inc., an engineering and construction services firm based in Houston. In February 2009, KBR pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to authorizing and paying bribes from 1995 to 2004 for the plant contracts in Nigeria.
KBR, which split from Halliburton in 2007, agreed to pay more than $400 million in fines in the plea deal.
Babafemi said that in addition to Halliburton and its Nigerian subsidiary, Halliburton CEO David J. Lesar, former KBR CEO Albert “Jack” Stanley and current KBR CEO William Utt all face similar charges in the case. Each charge in the 16-count indictment carries as much as three years in prison.
Officials with Halliburton could not be immediately reached for comment. Heather L. Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said in a statement that Utt joined the firm in 2006, two years after the bribery allegedly took place.
“The actions of the Nigerian government suggest that its officials are wildly and wrongly asserting blame in this matter,” Browne said. “KBR will continue to vigorously defend itself and its executives, if necessary, in this matter.”
Stanley pleaded guilty in 2008 to federal bribery charges for his role in the scheme.
Cheney resigned as Halliburton’s CEO in 2000 to run as former President George W. Bush’s vice president.
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