NRC bericht:
Wikipedia: pionnen Shell op alle niveaus politiek Nigeria
Gepubliceerd: 9 december 2010 09:57 | Gewijzigd: 9 december 2010 13:13
Door een onzer redacteuren
Rotterdam, 9 dec. Energiebedrijf Shell is tot in alle lagen van de Nigeriaanse overheid geïnfiltreerd. De multinational is zo continu op de hoogte van politieke ontwikkelingen in het voor hem belangrijke olie- en gasrijke land.
Daar waar nodig probeert het Brits-Nederlandse energieconcern beleid bij te sturen. Het krijgt daarbij medewerking van de Nederlandse, Britse en Amerikaanse ambassades in Nigeria. En van consultantbureaus, waaronder McKinsey.
Dat blijkt uit documenten die klokkenluiderwebsite WikiLeaks heeft gepubliceerd.
En nu opletten wat NRC niet meldt:
Nigeria: Halliburton Plans Plea Bargain in Cheney Corruption Case
Tuesday 07 December 2010
Lagos, Nigeria - Halliburton is planning to make a plea bargain in former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's corruption case, Nigerian officials told GlobalPost.
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged Cheney as the head of Halliburton when its engineering subsidiary, KBR, allegedly paid bribes totaling $180 million to secure contracts worth $6 billion.
KBR has admitted to bribing officials. Last year the company pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to paying the bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. KBR, which is now independent from Halliburton, agreed to pay $597 million in fines, according to the Associated Press.
Cheney's lawyer dismissed the new Nigerian charges as "entirely baseless."
However, Halliburton is in talks with Nigerian officials to make a plea bargain in the case, said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the agency which has pressed the charges against Cheney.
"The companies are asking for a plea bargain, we are reviewing their request, we are talking with them, but we have not gone far with the talks yet," Babafemi told GlobalPost.
Although Babafemi did not give further details, other sources within the agency said the plea bargain might involve a $500 million settlement.
Babafemi did not confirm whether the anti-corruption agency will ultimately settle for a plea bargain. But similar deals have been reached with other foreign multinational companies that have recently been charged with corruption in Nigeria.
Cheney and three other top executives could face sentences of three years in a Nigerian prison if convicted of the charges in the 16-count indictment, said Babafemi.
Halliburton and four other firms allegedly paid the bribes to win a contract to build a liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta.
In addition to Halliburton, the four companies to face charges are KBR, which is now based in Houston, Texas; Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield services provider; Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company; and Saipem Construction Co., a unit of Eni.
All the individuals named in the case are former and current executives of those companies.
Other multinational firms that have made plea bargains include Julius Berger, the Nigerian subsidiary of Bilfinger Berger AG of Germany, which had also been named in the same case as Halliburton. That firm has already paid $26 million to have the charges against it dropped.
Last month, Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, agreed to pay $46.5 million to settle charges that it had bribed some Nigerian officials with 17.5 million euros in return for contracts.
Uche Onyeagocha, a Nigerian lawyer, said it is very likely the terms of the plea bargain will cover all the officials being charged, including Cheney.
"A plea bargain does not exist under the Nigerian law, so in this case the companies will have the opportunity of protecting their interest," Onyeagocha said.
The possibility that the five companies together with their former and current officials could escape trial through a plea bargain has angered some Nigerian anti-corruption groups.
"There cannot be an out of court settlement. In a purely criminal matter like this, the full letters of the law should apply," Adetokunbo Mumuni, an anti-corruption campaigner, said. "Whoever is involved should be taken through the entire process to determine their guilt or not."
He insisted that caution should be exercised to stop the former vice president's prominence from overshadowing the main issue.
"The issue should not be so much about the former U.S. vice president, it should be to what extent the law will be properly applied," Mumuni said.
The Halliburton case is part of a growing number of corruption allegations brought against western companies operating in Nigeria. These have included Royal Dutch Shell and a major Swiss freight company, Panalpina Welttransport. The Swiss company is being investigated in connection with illegal payments it allegedly made to Nigerian customs officials on behalf of Shell.
Although Nigeria has long had a reputation for being corrupt itself, anti-corruption campaigners said these new charges shed light on the destructive role that major multinational firms play.
"What we are seeing shows how western multinational companies are fueling corruption in countries like Nigeria. They are perpetrating crimes they cannot commit back home," said Philip Jakpor, a spokesman for Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian affiliate of Friends of Earth, a nongovernmental organization.
On the streets of Lago, Nigeria's capital, the charges against Cheney have sparked a lively debate.
In the midst of an intense argument at a crowded newsstand in Agege, a Lagos suburb, Tope Olawale, an electrician, said he doubted Cheney would appear in a Nigerian court to face corruption charges.
Olawale said the United States would not allow its former vice president to go to court in Nigeria.
"America will not mind starting a war against Nigeria, if only to stop its former vice president from being tried in a Nigerian court," he said.
Vraag: Zou Shell aan corruptie doen? Collega's, aan de slag jongelui!
4 opmerkingen:
Ik vindt dat ze het best aardig doen Stan:
http://www.nrc.nl/economie/article2647862.ece/Wikipedia_pionnen_Shell_op_alle_niveaus_politiek_Nigeria
By the way:
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of statesmanship."
(President Theodore Roosevelt)
Maar er is geen sprake van onderzoeksjournalistiek bij de nrc. en het uitgangspunt van roosevelt is al helemaal een taboe bij die krant.
stan
Zou Shell aan corruptie doen?
In Nederland leent het zijn personeel uit aan de politiek, en wat waren het een succesnummers: Colijn, Bolkestein, Bos (wie volgt?)
Hoe Nederland Shell helpt
Het verdriet is nog net zo aanwezig als zeventien jaar geleden, toen Barinem Kiobel samen met acht andere mensenrechtenactivisten van het Ogoni-volk na een showproces door de Nigeriaanse machthebbers werd opgehangen. Jarenlang waren de vreedzame protesten van het Ogoni-volk tegen de vervuiling van hun land door de oliewinning van Shell wreed onderdrukt door de militaire leider Sani Abacha. Dorpen waren vernield, mensen waren gemarteld, en uiteindelijk had de repressie in 1995 geleid tot de massa-executie. ‘Dit is een tijd van rouw, het zou ook een tijd moeten zijn voor herbezinning door alle partijen,’ liet Shell destijds ‘diep geschokt’ in een verklaring weten.
Herbezinning waarop? Esther Kiobel en andere familieleden van de Ogoni-Negen zijn ervan overtuigd dat Shell medeplichtig is aan de martelingen en de buitenrechtelijke executies. Shell zou de militaire campagne tegen de Ogoni-activisten hebben gestuurd en gefinancierd. Met acht van hen, onder wie de erven van Ken Saro-Wiwa, de schrijver die de protesten aanvoerde, trof Shell in 2009 een schikking van 15,5 miljoen dollar ‘op humanitaire gronden’. Esther Kiobel weigerde te schikken.
Via de ATS kunnen slachtoffers van grove mensenrechtenschendingen genoegdoening halen in de Verenigde Staten . Daarbij ging het vooral om aanklachten die waren gericht tegen personen. Esther Kiobel daagt nu het grootste bedrijf ter wereld onder de ATS. De kans dat Esther Kiobel haar recht zal kunnen halen door een beroep op de ATS is buitengewoon klein.
In het heen en weer tussen de rechters en de advocaten komt de amicus curiae brief van Nederland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk herhaaldelijk ter sprake. Beide landen maken zich internationaal sterk voor mensenrechten. Toch wijzen ze Amerikaanse jurisdictie in de zaak-Kiobel af. Dat weegt zwaar, blijkt uit de vragen van de rechters.
Nederland schreef de amicus brief na stevig aandringen van Shell, blijkt uit correspondentie tussen het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en Shell waarin VN inzage kreeg na een beroep op de Wet openbaarheid bestuur.
etc etc.
http://www.vn.nl/Archief/Justitie/Artikel-Justitie/Hoe-Nederland-Shell-helpt.htm#
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