Halliburton's KBR to pay $ 402 mm bribery fine in Nigeria

Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a former member of the Halliburton group, has agreed to pay $ 402 mm in fines to settle criminal charges that it conspired to bribe Nigerian officials to win work on a massive liquefied natural gas project in the country, according to court documents.
The Houston-based engineering company and government contractor is accused of one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and four counts of violating the act.

The government filed a document in Houston Federal Court called a criminal information, spelling out the allegations, as well as a motion to waive certain procedures. The motion says KBR "agrees to all the facts alleged in the information," and refers to a plea agreement, but Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney in Washington said the agreement itself is not yet available to the public. No court date for the case has been set, she said.
The charges stem from allegations of a decade-long scheme in which KBR, through intermediaries, paid more than $ 180 mm in bribes to Nigerian officials to land contracts to build a $ 6 bn gas liquefaction plant on Bonny Island.

Last September, Albert "Jack" Stanley, a former chairman of the company previously called Kellogg Brown & Root, admitted he took part in the dealings. Stanley, of Houston, served as Kellogg Brown & Root's senior representative on a Madeira, Portugal-based consortium known as TSKJ, which was awarded four separate contracts for work on that complex. Stanley is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6.
Earlier, Halliburton, the former parent company of KBR, said it planned to pay nearly $ 560 mm to settle allegations related to the case, but it's not clear if that includes the $ 402 mm KBR fines. Under terms of KBR's spinoff from Halliburton, which was completed in April 2007, Halliburton agreed to cover KBR "for certain contingent liabilities" related to any fines that come out of the case, according to filings by both companies.

A spokesman for Halliburton could not be reached. In court documents, prosecutors estimate the fine against KBR should range between $ 376.8 mm and $ 753.6 mm based on federal sentencing guidelines. The parties agreed to a $ 402 mm sum, however, and ask the court to let KBR pay it in instalments, beginning with a $ 52 mm payment five days after sentencing, and seven $ 50 mm instalments, each due on the first day of each quarter beginning April 1.
KBR also agreed to three years of probation and an independent monitor, according to the documents.

A judge will have to approve the terms.
The case has been assigned to US District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, but prosecutors have filed a motion to move the case to Judge Keith Ellison's court because he is overseeing the Stanley case.