British solicitor Jeffrey Tesler arrested over gas deal ‘bribes’ (KBR Nigerian bribery )

[Robbien]

Source: Times, UK

A British solicitor accused of taking part in a scheme to bribe Nigerian officials to secure lucrative gas contracts was arrested yesterday.

Police arrested Jeffrey Tesler, 60, at a business address in North London after authorities in the United States requested his extradition and that of another Briton, Wojciech Chodan.

Prosecutors in the US have charged him with helping to dispense bribe money from a consortium made up of four companies to government officials in Nigeria to secure contracts worth more than $6 billion (£4.2 billion).

. . .

Mr Tesler and Mr Chodan are each charged with ten counts of violating the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and one count of conspiracy to violate the Act. The charges relate to the awarding of natural gas contracts in the Niger delta.

The two men were involved in a joint venture to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island in Nigeria. The consortium bidding for the contract included Kellogg, Brown and Root Inc (KBR), a major engineering and construction company that was formerly part of Halliburton, which was controlled by Dick Cheney until he became US Vice-President in 2000.



Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5855264.ece

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According to the indictment Tesler was hired for the sole purpose of bribing Nigerian government officials.

That would make his job title Chief Briber, wouldn't it?

[merh]

1. Isn't that what the French wanted to charge Cheney with?

bribing Nigerian government officials when he was in charge of Halliburton?

[Robbien]

2. Yup

Under French law, “the head of a company can be charged with ‘misuse of corporate assets’ for bribes paid by any employee – even if the executive didn’t know about the improper payments.” The UK and Switzerland also have investigated the matter.


Maybe this new lawsuit against these two guys and the previous suit against KBR's CEO Stanley are the DoJ's way of working their way up the ladder to Cheney.


We can only hope.