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Heck Of A Job

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | February 12, 2009 | +

Let us pause once more to remember Halliburton, the company that used to run ads saying they got work “because of what we know, not who we know,” the company that won a sole-source contract from the Pentagon in the run-up to the war in Iraq, and won an umbrella military service contract, called LOGCAP, that was first proposed back when Dick Cheney, the company’s future CEO, served as the Secretary of Defense.

Well, it turns out the company actually did get work because of who they knew. And they did not make their friends the old fashioned way. Through its former subsidiary, KBR, which holds the big logistical contract with the U.S. military, the company had consultants packing bags and cars with thousands of hundred dollar bills to bribe Nigerian officials to win a multi-billion dollar contract. “This bribery scheme involved both senior foreign government officials and KBR corporate executives who took actions to insulate themselves from the reach of U.S. law,” says Rita M. Galvin, acting assistant attorney general.

At the center of the plot is a former colleague of Cheney’s, whom Cheney promoted at the company, Albert “Jack” Stanley, a past chairman of KBR who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate federal anti-bribery laws. As the Wall Street Journal reported:

According to the plea, government prosecutors said bribes began in 1995, while Mr. Stanley worked for M.W. Kellogg, then part of a company called Dresser Industries Inc. Halliburton acquired Dresser in 1998 and merged M.W. Kellogg into an engineering and construction unit of Halliburton called Kellogg Brown & Root, or KBR.

Several of the bribes Mr. Stanley has said were paid occurred after that acquisition, during the time when Vice President Dick Cheney led Halliburton, and they continued after Mr. Cheney left. Though there was no evidence Mr. Cheney knew of the bribes, the future vice president promoted Mr. Stanley to run KBR in 1998. Mr. Stanley’s guilty plea said the bribes continued until 2004, the year Halliburton fired him. Mr. Cheney’s tenure as Halliburton chief executive ended in 2000.

At the time of Stanley’s guilty plea, Cheney’s office declined to comment on “pending litigation.” Now that the litigation is over–Halliburton and KBR have agreed to pay $579 million in fines–I wonder what the former vice president will say now.

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  • jr77006

    Hey, is anybody else having trouble accessing this site today. If you click on Swampland, you get this message saying that “you are looking for something that isn’t here.” But if you click on the individual posts, they pop up.

    Just curious as it’s bugging me.

  • jr77006

    Ok. Never mind. It seems to work now. And Michael, nice post. It’s hard to believe that Mr. Cheney would be involved in something illegal…

    Oh, who am I kidding. I bet he knew all about it.

  • http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

    Well considering nobody pressed him on it when he was in office or on the campaign trail and now he is a private citizen I am pretty sure the answer is never. But hey Scherer at least you finally got the word out……right?

  • alaskanturkey

    “I wonder what the former vice president will say now.” Can you/have someone ask him?

  • Cliff

    Now that the litigation is over–Halliburton and KBR have agreed to pay $579 million in fines–I wonder what the former vice president will say now.
    .
    You’re kidding, right? He’ll tell you to get the f–k off his lawn.
    .
    And it’s “old fashionED way.”

  • pierogielunaire

    Halliburton is corrupt?!??!! Whoa, dudes…

  • michaelscherer

    Site was down earlier this morning. now it seems to be working.

  • sqr1

    Who would have guessed that bribing Nigerian officials is an enforceable federal crime but bribing U.S. officials isn’t?

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    The only thing surprising is the fact that anyone’s surprised.
    .
    I haven’t noticed Blackwater in the news lately. What have they been up to?

  • dumdedumdum

    this is sort of a “dog bites man” story, isn’t it?

  • 2cute4prison

    Newsbreak: Dick Cheney and Haliburton are crooks!
    .
    Next on Swampland: Madonna is a slut.
    .

  • 53_3

    Are these the same Nigerians that keep pestering us with those stilted emails telling us we should send them moeny in some bizarre confidence scheme?
    .
    And where is that missing $9,000,000,000 dollars? Come to think of it, what’s the statute of limitations for grand theft?

  • textee

    Time magazine is still upset that the military service contract did not go to Obama’s massive voter fraud outfit ACORN, notwithstanding ACORN’s unparalleled expertise.

  • http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/halliburton-kbr/ Halliburton & KBR « Later On

    [...] Business, GOP, Government at 11:06 am by LeisureGuy Ah, yes: trusting big companies. Michael Scherer in Swampland blogs: Let us pause once more to remember Halliburton, the company that used to run ads saying they got [...]

  • shepherdwong

    “I wonder what the former vice president will say now.”
    .
    No doubt he’ll confess to being a criminal co-conspirator, war-profiteer and war crimes architect. And the media will create a firestorm insisting he be held to account for his treason. And the public won’t trust Republicans with control of our military for a generation. And please don’t wake me up, this is great…

  • FlownOver

    Thanks a pantload again, Michael. What were you so busy doing when these organized criminals were stealing our money and ruining our country? ‘Cause you sure as hell weren’t reporting this when it mattered.

  • 53_3

    “Time magazine is still upset that the military service contract did not go to Obama’s massive voter fraud outfit ACORN, notwithstanding ACORN’s unparalleled expertise.”
    .
    I rest my case…

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