US oil firm Halliburton to pay $30 mn to settle Angola bribery case

Former Halliburton vice president Jeannot Lorenz also agreed to pay a $75,000 fine for falsifying the company’s books and circumventing internal controls, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.

Lorenz steered $13 million in contracts to a local company owned by a former Halliburton employee with ties to an official at the Angolan state oil company Sonangol.

The official then approved lucrative contracts for Halliburton, bringing in profits of $14 million for the Houston-based company, the SEC said.

In settling the case, Halliburton agreed to surrender the profits, with $1.2 million in interest, and to pay another $14 million in fines.

The Justice Department, which also enforces US foreign bribery laws, will take no action in this case, Halliburton said in a statement.

The company said the investigation began in late 2010 when the company itself received an anonymous tip.

“Halliburton promptly reported the allegation to the Department of Justice, conducted a thorough internal investigation and cooperated with investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the DOJ.”

Halliburton settled the matter without admitting or denying wrongdoing, a common practice in civil enforcement matters, but has agreed to hire an outside consultant to oversee the company’s anti-corruption practices in Africa.

The US is the leading enforcer of laws which criminalize paying bribes to foreign officials to win business. But more than 40 developed and middle-income countries have adopted an international treaty requiring that they do likewise.