NightBlogger

The small town of Harper Woods, Michigan is at the center of an international scandal involving allegations of bribery, the Saudi royal family, and a $100 billion dollar fighter jet contract. Harper Woods is suing a British defense contracting firm, BAE Systems, alleging that the company engaged in illegal behavior, including paying over $2 billion in bribes and kickbacks to the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., in connection to a large fighter jet contract BAE had with Saudi Arabia stemming back to the 1980s. Why is this small town of less than 15,000 residents involved? Because the town invested part of its public employees’ retirement fund, about $135,000, in BAE Systems and now the town says it wants to make sure the company is spending shareholder money properly. More

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FT.com
US anti-bribery investigators are targeting a former Halliburton subsidiary over its work on a key Royal Dutch Shell project in Nigeria, widening a corruption probe into the country’s troubled oil industry.

The US investigation into Halliburton’s Nigerian operations – which covers a period when it was headed by Dick Cheney, US vice-president – has uncovered evidence of bribery and is now looking at a range of payments made in a number of countries over the past 20 years, according to the company.

The developments highlight the growing problems the investigation is creating for Halliburton and the western multinationals it has worked for in a nation whose oil industry is plagued by production disruptions and is the focus of increasing competition from Chinese companies. Read more