Nigeria to Charge Dick Cheney in Oil Pipeline Bribery Case

by Jordan Yerman | December 2, 2010 at 02:57 pm

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Nigeria to Seek Arrest Warrant for Dick Cheney

The Nigerian government is charging former US Vice President Dick Cheney in a $180 million bribery case. The Dick Cheney bribery charge involves Halliburton, Saipem and Technip, who conspired to corner a $6 billion contract to build a ntural gas plant in the Niger Delta.

The Nigerian government is not messing around: 10 Halliburton staffers have already been arrested, and Cheney has been specifically named as a target for arrest.

Halliburton and KBR (a former division of Halliburton) already settled out of court in the Niger Delta bribery case in the US, but France and Nigeria are investigating the issue on their own.

It is conceivable that Dick Cheney could join Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange on the Interpol Red Notice list. However, it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which the US gives up Dick Cheney.

"We are filing charges against Cheney," said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that the charges were likely to be brought next week.

Last week, Nigeria arrested at least 23 officials from companies including Halliburton, Saipem, Technip and a former subsidiary of Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG in connection with alleged illegal payments to Nigerian officials. Those detained were all freed on bail on Nov. 29.

As you’ll recall from our post yesterday about the week’s other wraithlike n’er-do-well, Julian Assange, Nigeria is one of many countries that has a bilateral extradition treaty with the United States.