by Dia Zamani
An Indian Express Investigation in collaboration with Le Monde and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is reporting that Nigeria’s Abdulsalami Abubakar accepted the Halliburton bribes while he was the head of state.
Abdulsalami succeeded Sanni Abacha after his death in 1998. In 2010 Nigeria indicted former US Vice President Dick Cheney, who was CEO of Halliburton before he was elected, only to later clear him when Halliburton worked out a US$35mn settlement.
Leaked records from HSBC, a huge global bank based in London, reveal new details about the bank’s role as a conduit for the bribes — and new details about how Jeffrey Tesler operated.
Accordong to the Newspaper report, The lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler, was speaking at the end of his 2012 sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to US corruption charges for his role in what became known as the “Halliburton bribery scandal”.
“There is no day when I do not regret my weakness of character,” said a contrite British lawyer in a Houston courtroom. “I allowed myself to accept standards of behaviour in a business culture which can never be justified. I accepted the system of corruption that existed in Nigeria. I turned a blind eye to what was happening, and I am guilty of the offences charged.”
A network of secretive banks and offshore tax havens was used to funnel US$182mn in bribes to Nigerian officials in exchange for US$6bn in engineering and construction work for an international consortium of companies that included a then Halliburton subsidiary.
The leaked files reveal that Tesler had financial ties to two former Nigeria officials: now-retired Major General Chris Garuba, chief of staff to former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar who himself allegedly received bribes as president; and Andrew Agom, a senior government official who was killed in an attack on a motorcade.
Read the complete report here —- Files point to $182mn Halliburton bribery scandal in Nigeria
