The Nigerian authorities have dropped criminal bribery charges against Halliburton and Dick Cheney, the former vice president, following the oil services giant’s agreement to a $35 million settlement, the company said in statement this week. Nigerian officials said last week that the settlement would amount to $250 million.
Mr. Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. The Nigerian charges, filed in early December, were just the latest fallout from a $180 million bribery scheme that Kellogg Brown & Root, a former Halliburton subsidiary, has admitted carrying out with three other companies in a joint venture to develop a liquid natural gas facility in the Niger Delta.
In 2009, Kellogg Brown & Root pleaded guilty in federal court in the United States to paying the bribes. Halliburton and KBR paid a record $579 million fine to settle the federal charges, and this April, a top KBR executive was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role.
As a result of this week’s $35 million settlement, “all lawsuits and charges” against KBR and Halliburton have been withdrawn by Nigeria, and government officials have pledged not to bring further criminal charges or civil claims against the company related to the bribery offenses, Halliburton said in its statement.
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