Legal News

Halliburton Breaks FCPA Settlement Record for U.S. Companies

By Dan Slater

Last month, Siemens broke a record for settlements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, when it settled for $800 million — almost 20 times higher than the largest previous penalty under the FCPA.

Today, according to the WSJ, Halliburton is setting the record for a U.S. company in a bribery investigation. It’s agreed to pay $559 million to the U.S. to settle charges that one of its former units bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a gas plant. (Here’s more from the FCPA blog.)

The investigation stems from the construction of a giant liquefied natural gas plant on the Nigerian coast near Port Harcourt from 1996 through the mid-2000s. The U.S. investigation has grown from a narrow focus on that facility to include a broader look at whether Halliburton executives coordinated bids with unnamed competitors involving multiple construction projects in different countries, according to Halliburton filings.

Lawyers and others who follow cases under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act say the Siemens and Halliburton payments mark a new era in antibribery enforcement. “It’s a welcome illustration that this is serious. Particularly, the U.S. government will step forward and vigorously take action,” Nancy Boswell, the CEO of anticorruption advocate Transparency International USA, tells the Journal.

The government’s case, notes the Journal, received a boost last year when former Halliburton executive Albert J. “Jack” Stanley agreed to plead guilty to orchestrating $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian officials. Under the plea agreement, he faces up to seven years in prison and $10.8 million in restitution.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).