14 November 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA- NIGERIA’S former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Mashall A.D. Bello, has denied media reports of his involvement in the Halliburton bribery scandal.
The former Airforce chief stated that one of the major players in the scandal, Mr. Jeffery Tesler, has written to clear his (Bello) names as he was erroneously mentioned in the scandal.
Bello said Mr. Tesler, a UK lawyer, who is serving jail term in the United States, sent an e-mail to clear him of any involvement when the issue relating to prosecuting the principal suspects came up in Nigeria and US.
The Halliburton bribery tale has been a worrisome issue since it broke in 2003, following an investigation of KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, over payments to a range of high profile Nigerian officials in the executive arm of government as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the Nigeria LNG Limited, NLNG.
The sum of $180 million was paid out as bribe to the Nigerian officials by Kellog Brown and Root, KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, to enable the TSKJ consortium of which Halliburton is a part win the $6 billion contract for the construction of the NLNG plant.
The company has already pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a fine of $520 million..