afrol News, 9 April - The Nigerian Federal Government has confirmed that the US government has helped trace a $150 million in a secret bank account in Switzerland where millions from the Halliburton bribe belonging to Nigerian officials are lodged.

Nigeria's justice minister Michael Kase Aondoakaa said the money was part of $180 million in bribes given by US construction company Halliburton to Nigerian officials.

In February, Halliburton admitted to paying the bribes to top officials between 1994 and 2004 to win construction contracts in the West African state.

“We have discovered that $150 million of the bribe money is in Zurich. That is the first shocking discovery. The entire money is $180 million, but $150 million is already trapped in Zurich,” Mr Aondoaaka told local reporters in Abuja.

Halliburton and its engineering subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root negotiated bribes with three successive holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the government of Nigeria during that time, according to the plea agreement the company made with the US Department of Justice.

KBR admitted to guilt for conspiring with its joint-venture partners and others to pay off officials in order to secure more than US $6 billion in engineering, procurement and construction contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria.

The former chief executive of KBR Albert "Jack" Stanley, who pleaded guilty to making the bribes in order to secure the contracts, is to be sentenced on 6 May. KBR has agreed to pay more than $402m in fines, of which Halliburton, as the former parent company, agreed to pay $302m.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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