THE Federal Government’s bid to prosecute some top Nigerian officials linked with the $180 million Halliburton bribery may soon receive a boost. Reason: Albert Jack Stanley, the man at the centre of the fraud, has offered to assist investigators do their job as he has expressed his willingness to testify in Nigeria on the matter.
Stanley, a long-time friend and business associate of former United States (U.S.) Vice President Dick Cheney, is described as the ringleader of the $180 million Halliburton scandal.
His lawyer, Larry Veselka, said in the U.S. yesterday that Stanley was ready to testify against the Nigerian officials in the corruption scheme, if invited by the government.
The lawyer also gave another condition: The American government must give its consent to such cooperation.
He said Stanley is obligated under his plea deal with the government to co-operate with any investigation anywhere.
Veselka disclosed that Stanley who has made several Nigerian friends is aware that the Nigerian government is opening investigations into the case and is planning to cooperate once the U.S. government says so.
Speaking in Houston on phone with The Guardian yesterday, Veselka said his client had remained a cooperating witness with the American government since this scandal broke out last year.
When asked whether Stanley would give evidence against Nigerian officials involved in the scandal known to him, Veselka said: “He will do whatever the U.S. government asks him to do.”
Until the lid on the scam was blown, Stanley was the chief executive officer (CEO) of KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary involved in the over one decade-old Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) contract-for-bribe scheme.
Veselka said if the U.S. government does approve Stanley’s plan, it would be reasonable to assume that he would reveal all he knows including the identities of Nigerians involved in the scam.
Veselka added that the American government knows the identities and his client would state them to help Nigerian investigations if required by the Nigerian government.
According to the U.S. government statement on the matter last month, “at crucial junctures before the award of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, Stanley and others allegedly met with three successive former holders of a top level office in the executive branch of the Nigerian government to ask the office holders to designate a representative with whom the joint venture should negotiate the bribes…”
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kaase Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) had last week said that the government was still struggling to get the identities of the Nigerians involved.
Aondoakaa, who attributed this to the American government putting the list under seal, said the government could not prosecute anybody on the basis of media reports.
The minister, who also hinted that the government had traced $150 million of the $180 million of the bribe money to some accounts in Zurich, Switzerland, added that it was one thing to claim that a bribe was given and another to establish the actual amount involved and whether the money actually reached the suspected “taker.”
Even though the U.S. government has not yet formally decided on what to do with the request from Nigeria for Mutual Legal Assistance, official Washington sources have confirmed receipt of the request from Aondoakaa.
By September 2008, Stanley had entered into a plea deal with the American government on his role in the bribery scheme. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department announced the participation and indictment of two United Kingdom (UK) citizens, Jeffrey Tessler, 60, and Wojciech Chodan, 71, in the scandal seeking their extradition.
Stanley is an American and is based in Houston, Texas. He is now set for sentencing having pleaded guilty to violating the country’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which forbids Americans to offer bribe abroad. Stanley’s sentence is set for August this year, facing about seven years jail term.
In the letter seeking mutual legal assistance, the Federal Government appointed an American-based Nigerian lawyer, Kayode Oladele and United Nations (UN) expert and international crime investigator, Jack Blum, to facilitate U.S. co-operation, including possibly taking depositions from witnesses, including Stanley.
When asked if the Justice Department had asked him to cooperate with the Nigerian investigations, the lawyer said he would leave that to the U.S. government to disclose.
But Veselka offered an insight into that possibility when he said it was likely that Stanley’s sentencing later this year might be postponed because of potential investigations in related cases.
He said: “The sentencing may be moved due to ongoing investigations which will put the sentencing off further.”
Asked when Stanley would be available for direct news interview, Veselka said that would be after the sentencing, adding that for now, he is leaving the government with the discretion on what to make public or not. Veselka stressed that “my client is a cooperating witness with the U.S. government.”
But he said, in his own opinion, it is very possible that the U.S. government would be releasing his client to co-operate with the Nigerian investigation based on the plan of Washington during the plea agreement. The plea agreement shows that Stanley agreed to cooperate with foreign investigations into the matter, and Nigeria is an important foreign connection in the scandal.
Stanley’s plea agreement signed on September 3 last year, did not preclude him from revealing the identities of the Nigerian officials.
In the plea agreement, Stanley authorised the hiring of consultants by the Joint Venture, who allegedly would pay bribes “to high level Nigerian government officials to assist Joint Venture … in winning the contracts to build the Bonny Island project.”
Furthermore, the deal document revealed that Stanley again authorised the hiring of different consultants, whose job would be to pay “bribes to lower-level Nigerian government officials, to assist Joint Venture … in winning the contracts…”
On pages 15 and 16 of the plea agreement, the U.S. government revealed that “at crucial junctures in the life of the Bonny Island project, Stanley and others met with three successive holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the government of Nigeria to ask the office holder to designate a representative with whom Joint Venture should negotiate bribes to Nigerian government officials.”
Providing more specific details, the plea agreement said: “On or about November 30, 1994, Stanley and others met with the first such top-level executive branch official in Abuja, Nigeria, to ask the official to nominate a representative with whom Joint Venture should negotiate the fees that Joint Venture would pay as… bribes to Nigerian government officials.”
The document disclosed that, “this top level executive branch official designated a high-level official of the Ministry of Petroleum as his representative.”
About $60 million was set aside at this point for the bribe. Subsequent meetings of such composition of top executive Nigerian officials continued at every point when a new aspect of the LNG trains were to be awarded.
The plea agreement was signed by Stanley himself on September 3, and by the Court Clerk, Michael N. Milby, U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case for the American government, William J. Stuckwisch and Veselka.
Stanley, according to U.S. investigators, is indeed the ringleader of the entire bribery scheme. He was until December 2003, chairman of the U.S.-based oil service company, Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, KBR.
Stanley is known as a longtime friend and associate of Dick Cheney, who was also Halliburton boss before he was elected as Vice President in 2000.