A unit of Halliburton is under investigation by the UKs Serious Fraud Office over the US oil service companys part in an alleged plot to pay more than 170 mln usd of bribes to win work at a Nigerian gas plant, the Financial Times reported.
The SFO said it had carried out searches at business and residential premises as part of the probe into KBR, whose work on the project was underwritten partly by British government money.
For part of the period under investigation, Halliburton was headed by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president.
The SFO said searches were carried out on July 20 at UK residential addresses and a company office in London.
Halliburton said it continues to co-operate and is ‘committed to getting resolution’. It declined further comment, the FT reported.
The Nigerian bribery allegations erupted three years ago, when a former executive of a consortium working on the gas plant told a French judge it had operated an offshore slush fund to win contracts since the mid-1990s. The consortium is quarter-owned by KBR.