Halliburton was based in Dallas, Texas, but its headquarters moved in 2003.
In the early 1990s Halliburton was found to be in violation of federal trade barriers in Iraq and Libya, having sold these countries dual-use oil drilling equipment and, through its former subsidiary, Halliburton Logging Services, sending six pulse neutron generators to Libya. After having pleaded guilty, the company was fined $1.2 million, with another $2.61 million in penalties.
In 2001 it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal that a subsidiary of Halliburton Energy Services called Halliburton Products and Services Ltd opened an office in Tehran. The company, HPS, operated "behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block." HPS was incorporated in 1975 in the Cayman Islands.
Although HPS was incorporated in the Caymans and is "non-American", it shares both the logo and name of Halliburton Energy Services and, according to Dow Jones Newswire offers services from Halliburton units world-wide through its Tehran office. Such behaviour, undertaken while Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, may have violated the Trading with the Enemy Act.
A Halliburton spokesman, responding to inqueries from Dow Jones, said "This is not breaking any laws. This is a foreign subsidiary and no US person is involved in this. No US person is facilitating any transaction. We are not performing directly in that country."
As of 2003, Halliburton was still operating in Iran. CNN, in a report entitled "US companies are operating in Iran despite sanctions," CNN reported that a Halliburton spokesperson told the news agency that HPS helps Iran build oil rigs in the country's south.
In April 2002, a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), was awarded a $7 million contract to construct steel holding cells at Camp X-Ray. More recently, the subsidiary was awarded a no-bid contract to conduct oil well firefighting in Iraq worth an estimated $1 billion. In May 2003, Halliburton's role under contract with regard to Iraqi oilfields was expanded to include "operation of facilities and distribution of products". [1]
Also in May 2003, Halliburton revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its KBR subsidiary had paid a Nigerian official $2.4 million in bribes in order to receive favorable tax treatment. [1] [1]
The company is currently (2003) being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission due to allegations of profit inflation by accounting for cost overruns as revenue in shareholder reports. Halliburton counters that the practice was approved by its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and conforms to generally accepted practices.
Halliburton's chairman and CEO is David J. Lesar, who took over the positions from Dick Cheney, now the U.S. Vice President. Cheney became chairman and CEO of Halliburton in 1995; he retired from the company during the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign, and was awarded a severance package worth $20 million.
See also: private military contractor
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