Halliburton Under Renewed Fire

PRATAP CHATTERJEE
Chatterjee is program director for CorpWatch and recently returned from his second investigative trip to Iraq. He is one of the authors of the report “Houston, We Have a Problem,” an “alternative annual report” on Halliburton which will be released on May 18, the day before Halliburton’s shareholder meeting. Chatterjee said today: “Our report describes Halliburton’s estimated $9 billion in contracts and the various complaints and allegations of wrongdoing that have been lodged against the company. Halliburton has been accused of more fraud, waste, and corruption than any other Iraq contractor — from allegations of overcharging $61 million for fuel and $24.7 million for meals, to confirmed kickbacks worth $6.3 million. Halliburton is also the only Iraq contractor currently under investigation by the Department of Justice…. Cheney’s income from being vice president is about the same as what he gets from Halliburton. Why is the vice president of the U.S. getting a paycheck from the company that has benefitted more than any other to date from the invasion of Iraq which he pushed? Cheney deferred his payment as CEO of Halliburton so that he could lower his tax liability — this while the U.S. taxpayer is funding Halliburton, and Halliburton paid only $15 million in taxes in 2002.” Chatterjee is author of the forthcoming book Iraq, Inc.
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MEDEA BENJAMIN
ANDREA BUFFA
Benjamin and Buffa are with Global Exchange, which is helping to organize protests in Houston for the Halliburton stockholder meeting on Wednesday. Buffa said today: “We’re going to tell the shareholders and CEO of Halliburton to bring their employees home from Iraq and stop ripping off U.S. taxpayers and Iraqis
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JIM VALLETTE
Vallette is research director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. He said today: “There has been over $7 billion in taxpayer-financed institutional support for Halliburton’s projects led by the World Bank Group and the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Halliburton’s global expansion has been financed by the U.S. taxpayer. We recently completed a study (“The Energy Tug-of-War: Winners and Losers in World Bank Fossil Fuel Finance”) which found that Halliburton benefitted more than any other company from the World Bank’s fossil fuel financing.”
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CHARLIE CRAY
Director of the Center for Corporate Policy and a collaborator on www.HalliburtonWatch.org (which will be launched on Tuesday), Cray said today: “Just like some of the other companies have done, Halliburton’s shareholders should demand that the company cease paying deferred compensation to ex-CEO Dick Cheney until matters regarding violations of law while he was CEO are resolved. This includes allegations of $180 million in alleged bribery related to activities in Nigeria” and still-outstanding accounting fraud allegations.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020