Another Corruption Investigation Opened Against Halliburton

French anti-corruption judge Renaud van Ruymbeke began last year the first investigation into potential violations of French laws to implement the OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. As a result of the French investigations the U.S. Government has started its own preliminary review and the Nigerian parliament is considering starting its own inquiry.

The investigations aim to determine whether millions of dollars in commissions paid by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and France's Technip during construction of a Nigerian natural gas facility violated French criminal law enacted to implement the above-mentioned international convention, which OECD members and five other states have signed.

The OECD pact requires signatory countries to enact criminal laws and investigate, and, if necessary, prosecute persons paying bribes to foreign officials to obtain or retain business.