FCPA Watch: KBR and Halliburton Agree to Pay US$402 Million Fine to Settle FCPA Charges in Nigerian Bribery Case

Originally published February 11, 2009

Keywords: FCPA, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,

KBR, Halliburton, FCPA charges, Nigerian Bribery Case, bribes,

Nigerian Government, probation,

On February 6, 2009, former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown

& Root LLC (KBR) was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt

Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a decade-long,

multi-national scheme to bribe Nigerian officials. (View the

criminal information.)

From 1994 until 2004, KBR, a Houston-based engineering and

construction firm, was part of a joint venture with Japanese,

French and Italian companies to design and build a liquefied

natural gas production facility on Bonny Island, Nigeria. According

to the criminal information, the joint venture was awarded four

contracts valued at $6 billion by the Nigerian government. The

Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that KBR paid $182 million in

bribes to Nigerian government officials in exchange for these

contracts. The bribes were allegedly facilitated by a Portuguese

company that was owned by the joint venture, and which KBR created

as a shell company in an attempt to insulate itself from FCPA

liability. According to the criminal information, KBR caused the

Portuguese shell company to enter into consulting contracts that

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