TankGrrl - Annotations On Life | |||
Did you know: That Dick Cheney is probably facing bribery, money laundering and corporate funds misuse charges in an investigation, started in France, over dealings he did while with Halliburton? "But that's France, not America!", you say. Well, if you do business in a country, you're bound by their laws. And besides, Halliburton isn't quite an 'American' company since only 25% of it is incorporated in the United States. How else could a corporation making as much as Hallburton does get away with paying only $15 million of an estimated $80 million in taxes for 2002? But let me assure you, the U.S. government has necessarily had to get involved in the investigation as well. There's no avoiding it. But it sure is hard to get charges brought against Halliburton inside the U.S.A. It's almost as if they have a guardian angel in the White House. The company was caught twice in 2000 over-charging the government. Nothing happened. In 2002 they were finally given a $2 million fine for over-charges. In 2003 Halliburton admitted that it bribed Nigeria $2.4 million for favorable tax treatment. Nothing's come from this yet, Halliburton fingered some low-level employees, but this is completely illegal. Then there are the Kuwaiti kickbacks (to the tune of $6.3 million) in 2004. No charges. In fact, it got another $1.2 billion in contracts. As for the French case, being investigated alongside US, Nigerian and British officials, the issue revolves around $180 million in bribes to secure a $6 billion gas plant contract. This time no low-level employees can be fingered. The bribes come directly from a consortium between 4 companies. Low-level employees don't sit in on multi-national billion dollar consortiums. Halliburton, while Cheney was CEO, represented 25% of that consortium. Two insiders appear to be lined up to testify that Cheney was completely aware of it all. One has already done so under oath. This is apparently what Cheney got so angry about and told Patrick Leahy to "fuck off" about. His buddy George W. reportedly kept his comments inside the oval office when he replied "Fuck 'em all."
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