Public Broadcasting service Lowell Bergman reveals today that indicted Halliburton CEO, Jack Stanley has admitted that he met former Nigerian President Obasanjo in 2001 to discuss how to continue securing LNG projects with the Nigerian government. The projects led to the payments of bribes worth $180 million to Nigerian officials. Department of Justice officials are looking into the role played by Obasanjo in the bribe scandal. Albert Jack Stanley's position contradicts Obasanjo's position in public interviews that they never met.
See transcript: STUDIO INTRO
INTERNATIONAL BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION HAVE BEEN THE FOCUS OF A NINE-MONTH INVESTIGATION BY OUR PBS PARTNER, “FRONTLINE,” CULMINATING IN A RECENT DOCUMENTARY AND A WEBSITE: “THE BUSINESS OF BRIBES.”
HERE WITH A SPECIAL REPORT FOR THE NEWS HOUR ON THE DAMAGE DONE BY LARGE SCALE BRIBERY IN NIGERIA IS FRONTLINE CORRESPONDENT, LOWELL BERGMAN.
_____________________
HOUSTON COURTHOUSE/JACK STANLEY PERP WALK
LAST SEPTEMBER IN FEDERAL COURT IN HOUSTON .. TEXAS … CORPORATE AMERICA PAID ATTENTION WHEN
THIS MAN … ALBERT “JACK” STANLEY … PLED GUILTY TO BRIBERY.
Court Reporter: Jack do you want to say anything?
STANLEY, THE FORMER CEO OF KBR, THEN A SUBSIDIARY OF THE HALLIBUTON CORPORATION .. AGREED TO A RECORD SEVEN-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE … FOR MASTERMINDING THE PAYMENT OF $180 MILLION DOLLARS IN BRIBES IN NIGERIA.
STANLEY’S LAWYER: Mr. Stanley has been cooperating and he cooperated today.
AS A RESULT, EARLIER THIS YEAR KBR AND THE HALLIBURTON CORPORATION AGREED TO PAY MORE THAN HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN FINES ... THE LARGEST FINE EVER FOR INTERNATIONAL BRIBERY BY A U.S. COMPANY.
… THIS CASE HAS OPENED A WINDOW INTO THE WAY MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS DO BUSINESS IN CORRUPTION- PLAGUED NIGERIA…
LB: The World Bank has reported that Nigeria has lost $300 billion dollars over the last few decades due to corruption.
Obasanjo:World Bank says it's over $300 billion, I will not argue with them.
LB: $300 billion disappeared
Obasanjo: Over a period of years.
OLESEGUN OBASANJO WAS PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA FROM 1999 TO 2007.
Obasanjo: Fighting corruption is like fighting a war in a battlefield.
A FORMER NIGERIAN ARMY GENERAL …PRESIDENT OBASANJO IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION … TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL.
LB: Corruption you would agree is endemic in Nigeria.
Obasanjo: It is. // Corruption is a cancer that must not be allowed to be in the body of a nation because it destroys. //And that is what we were fighting against in Nigeria.
IN 2003, PRESIDENT OBASANJO APPOINTED THIS MAN … NUHU RIBADU … AS NIGERIA’S FIRST CHIEF CORRUPTION HUNTER.
Ribadu: We went after the very powerful people. The rich ones. Those who hitherto were above the law. // One of the governors we think he took close to about 75 percent of the resources of this state. And took about -- LB: A governor in Nigeria took 75 percent of the money? Ribadu: Yeah. LB: From the state government? Ribadu: Yeah. /And this is a government -- a-a state that has probably made over a billion dollars, uh, in terms of revenue that came to the state. The governor m-- diverted minimum 75 percent of that for himself. Alone.
LB: While the people are living on $2 a day. Ribadu: That's it. That's it. // Corruption has taken over the engine of government in Nigeria. It's what runs everything.
THE COST OF THIS CORRUPTION IS MOST EVIDENT HERE IN THE NIGER DELTA … THE CENTER OF NIGERIA’S OIL INDUSTRY…
BUT ALL THAT OIL WEALTH DOES NOT REACH THE PEOPLE ... WHO LIVE IN ABJECT POVERTY … WITH THE LAND AND WATER DEVASTATED BY SPILLS … AND THE AIR POISONED BY THE CONSTANT BURNING OF NATURAL GAS, CALLED FLARING…
ALL THIS THE CONSEQUENCE OF OUT OF CONTROL CORRUPTION.
LB: [And] before you took office no one , no company had been prosecuted in Nigeria --
Ribadu: Never.
LB:--- for bribery. //And you come in, and you make how many cases?
Ribadu: Thousands. //And then we got convictions, about 270-something //
LB: 270-something convictions.
Ribadu: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. World record, I believe. By any standard. Yeah.
RIBADU SAYS HE WANTED TO SET AN EXAMPLE: NO ONE WAS IMMUNE….
LB: You investigated your boss?
Ribadu: The inspector general of police, yes. I investigated him, and I got him arrested. //I seized $150 million from him and sent him to prison.
LB: And governors of some of the wealthiest state governments?
Ribadu: Several.//
LB: Didn't they try to bribe you? Ribadu: Several times. Several. And it does -- at one point there was a particular incident where I was given $15 million cash. LB: You were given this money?
Ribadu: Directly. Former governor one of the Niger Delta states in Nigeria. He gave me cash; $15 million. In bags. Two heavy, big, lot -- uh, bags of -- and, uh, I used it as evidence against him.
BUT RIBADU SAYS WHEN IT CAME TO THE REALLY BIG PAYOFFS … INVOLVING MAJOR MULTI NATIONAL COMPANIES ... WITH BRIBES GOING TO THE TOP LEADERSHIP OF THE COUNTRY… HE OFTEN FELT POWERLESS.
Ribadu: Most of this is happened outside Nigeria. The documents are not in Nigeria. The money is not in Nigeria. The entire transactions do take place outside. That is the difficulty I faced // The big chief executives // they are not in Nigeria.// The only time they go to Nigeria is to go and give somebody money.
WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOUND WHEN THEY BEGAN TO INVESTIGATE THE HALLIBURTON/ KBR CASE AS PART OF A CRACKDOWN ON INTERNATIONAL BRIBERY.
THE BRIBERY SCHEME BEGAN MORE THAN A DECADE AGO… WHEN KBR LED A CONSORTIUM OF COMPANIES COMPETING FOR THE CONTRACT TO BUILD THIS MASSIVE $6 BILLION DOLLAR LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS PLANT IN THE NIGER DELTA.
THE KBR CONSORTIUM… LED BY JACK STANLEY… WOULD PAY $180 MILLION DOLLARS IN BRIBES – TO A SUCCESSION OF NIGERIA’S LEADERS TO SECURE THAT CONTRACT.
Smith: Its one of the few cases we have seen where you have got all the players in a complex international structure of fraud and corruption and self enrichment…
VETERAN JOURNALIST PATRICK SMITH HAS FOLLOWED THE CASE.
SMITH: You see the // corporate executives from … the U.S., …the sorts of things they discussed, // how much should I bribe a head of state? How much should I bribe the Chief of the Army? So you see the whole system laid bare.
THE U.S. CASE REVEALS THAT IN THE MID-1990’S … THE FIRST BRIBES WENT TO NIGERIA’S BRUTAL STRONGMAN … SANI ABACHA … WHO SET A NEW STANDARD FOR CORRUPTION.
NUHU RIBADU: His period was // one of the darkest moments in the history of our country//we estimate that he took, uh, close to about $6 billion dollars – LOWELL- $6 billion? NUHU- Alone. Alone. Singlehandedly.
THE BRIBES FUELED ABACHA’S EXCESSIVE LIFESTYLE … AND HIS UNUSUAL DEATH WOULD BECOME A METAPHOR FOR GREED.
SMITH: The story is that he -- he took an enormous amount of Viagra and -- and then, um, was entertained by a succession of prostitutes from around the world in one sort of marathon sex session. And after that he was left a wreck, um, um, on the floor foaming at the mouth and that's where he was found. Um, so there are various explanations. What was pretty clear was that the Nigerian elite, particularly his fellow generals, had decided they'd had enough of him, and a lot of people wanted Abacha dead.
BUT AFTER ABACHA DIED, JACK STANLEY CONTINUED THE BRIBERY SCHEME.
AND BECAUSE OF HIS SUCCESS IN LANDING BIG CONTRACTS … STANLEY WAS PROMOTED TO BECOME CEO OF KBR IN 1998 … BY THE MAN WHO WAS THEN RUNNING HALLIBURTON … DICK CHENEY.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT MILLIONS IN BRIBES WERE PAID WHILE HE WAS CEO … CHENEY HAS ALWAYS DENIED KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THE BRIBERY CONSPIRACY.
AND SO FAR JACK STANLEY … ACCORDING TO SOURCES … HAS NOT DIRECTLY IMPLICATED HIS FORMER BOSS.
BUT STANLEY HAS IMPLICATED FORMER NIGERIAN PRESIDENT OBASANJO … WHO DENIES EVER TAKING A BRIBE.
LB: So you have been able to resist the temptations then?
Obasanjo: Well I have been --
LB: Of your predecessors.
Obasanjo: I have been investigated, uh, re-investigated, uh, re-investigated and nobody can find corruption around me.
LB: Because you know your critics say you're just too smart.
Obasanjo: Well if it is being too smart, then somebody who is smarter should have found something.
LB: In the interviews we've done and in the public documents that are now in file in the United States related to this Kellogg, Brown & Root situation.
Obasanjo: Yes, yes.
LB: It does indicate that there were meetings that took place while you were President. And it only says, "High officials of a Nigerian government."
Obasanjo: No, I won't say that these things were not taking place. … there were ministers in my own government that participated in corruption.
LB: It reached to your Vice President.
LB: It reached to people in your own political party
Obasanjo: I will not say no.// I cannot say to you that, uh, when I was there, "Oh there was no corruption going on."
IN FACT ... SOURCES IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SAY THAT JACK STANLEY HAS REVEALED THAT HE MET FACE TO FACE WITH THEN PRESIDENT OBASANJO IN 2001 … ABOUT CONTINUING THE KBR BRIBERY SCHEME.
NUHU RIBADU SAYS WHILE HE WAS UNABLE TO FIND ANY EVIDENCE IMPLICATING OBASANJO, HE BELIEVES THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT KNOWS IF THE FORMER PRESIDENT IS IN FACT.. CORRUPT.
Ribadu: And they know exactly what happened, hopefully something will come out. I think its only right and fair. Let world know exactly what really happened and who was involved.
THE REAL TRAGEDY … RIBADU SAYS … IS THAT $180 MILLION DOLLARS IN BRIBES COULD HAVE SAVED LIVES IN NIGERIA.
Ribadu: $180 million dollars//could build 100 hospitals. This $180 million could build 100 schools. Probably will provide thousands of kilometers of roads by African standard.
TODAY, RIBADU IS NO LONGER HUNTING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA.
SOON AFTER PRESIDENT OBASANJO LEFT OFFICE, RIBADU HIMSELF WAS REMOVED AND BECAME ONE OF THE HUNTED.
HE WAS CHASED DOWN AND SHOT AT... BUT HIS BULLETPROOF CAR SAVED HIS LIFE.
Ribadu: I survived it. They wanted to kill me…. if you fight corruption it fights back. And I fought corruption in Nigeria. But I am lucky; I'm out. LB: They missed you. Ribadu: I'm out. Yeah. Very lucky. For now.
HE NOW LIVES IN EXILE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
PERP WALK REDO
AS FOR KBR’S JACK STANLEY, HE ADMITTED TO NOT ONLY ARRANGING THE BRIBES, BUT ALSO DIVERTING MILLIONS FROM THE BRIBE MONEY INTO HIS OWN PERSONAL SWISS BANK ACCOUNT.
STANLEY’S TESTIMONY IN THIS CASE HAS ALREADY RESULTED IN ADDITIONAL INDICTMENTS, AND MORE ARE EXPECTED.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });