SEC Recoups Nearly $180 Million in Settlement of Bribery Charges and Related Accounting Violations

Defendant KBR, Inc., via a subsidiary, was one of four alleged participants in a joint venture that paid more than $180 million over ten years to two agents, in the U.K. and Japan, respectively, to funnel money to Nigerian officials. The joint venture allegedly sought – and in fact was awarded – more than $6 billion in construction contracts to build liquefied natural gas production facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria. Parent company/defendant Halliburton was embroiled by its apparent failure to detect the bribery and the upstream impact on financial records. Criminal charges were also brought against the KBR subsidiary entity that was the actual participant in the joint venture/scheme, and those proceedings were settled for, inter alia, an additional fine of $402 million.