Ex-KBR Chief to be Sentenced in Bribery Scheme
HOUSTON (AP) — A former KBR Inc. chief executive faced sentencing Thursday for his role in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials in return for $6 billion in engineering and construction contracts.
Albert “Jack” Stanley pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring in the decade-long scheme related to the company’s natural gas operations in Nigeria from 1995 to 2004.
Under his plea agreement, he faces the possibility of seven years in prison and $10.8 million in restitution for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The act says it is unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business or to secure an advantage to getting the business.
Court files show Stanley’s sentencing, first set for November 2008 before U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison, was reset at least 16 times. He’s been free under $100,000 bail.
KBR, a worldwide engineering and construction services firm, was split off as a separate public company from Halliburton in 2007. It was formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root.
Stanley, 69, was chief executive of KBR until 2001 and chairman until June 2004. He also pleaded guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud KBR and other companies, admitting to improperly receiving $10.8 million from a consultant hired by KBR at his behest.
Stanley acknowledged in his plea that a four-company joint venture, including KBR and firms from France, Italy and Japan, paid about $182 million to consulting companies that then paid bribes to several Nigerian government officials.
Federal investigators focused on a contract for construction of a $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant on Nigeria’s Bonny Island that was awarded to TSKJ, the Portugal-based, four-company consortium where Stanley was KBR’s senior representative.
Three years ago, KBR agreed to pay $402 million in fines to settle federal criminal charges related to the case.
A second man involved in the bribery scheme, British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, was sentenced earlier Thursday to 21 months in prison and two years’ probation. He was arrested in London in 2009, pleaded guilty in Houston a year ago to conspiring and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and has been free on $50,000 bail.
For Full Story Go to Associated Press.
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press
Short URL: https://kbrlitigation.com/?p=2467
Posted by admin
on Feb 24 2012. Filed under News Coverage, Other National News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
