- Halliburton, the company formerly run by Dick Cheney,
the US vice-president, was last night facing another investigation, this
time over possible business dealings with Iran.
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- The oil services company said it had received a letter
from the US treasury department, informing it that an inquiry into allegations
that Halliburton might have broken trade embargoes had been reopened.
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- The investigation relates to when Mr Cheney was running
the company. He was chief executive between 1995 and 2000 before quitting
to run for office with George Bush, taking with him a $36m (£19m)
severance package.
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- Halliburton said the investigation, originally begun
in 2001, had been reopened but gave no other detail. Reuters quoted treasury
sources saying that new information had come to light which prompted a
fresh investigation.
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- The news agency claimed to have seen documents which
detailed business dealings between a Halliburton subsidiary registered
in the Cayman Islands and an Iranian oil company called Kala.
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- Halliburton has been plagued by controversy, from questions
over its accounting practices to allegations of overcharging the military
and executives taking bribes. In the past there have also been questions
asked about the company having business dealings in Libya.
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- Despite the controversy, the US government continues
to give work to the company.
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- It has over $9bn of contracts to rebuild Iraq and provide
logistical support to US troops, more than any other firm.
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- In the past, Halliburton has maintained that its subsidiaries
which had dealings with Iran were staffed and managed by non-US personnel
and that the company had complied with US law. A loophole allows US companies
to conduct business in Iran as long as the subsidiaries are not run by
Americans. Last week it emerged that criminal investigators in the US have
opened an inquiry into allegations that Halliburton was involved in $180m
in bribes paid to Nigerian officials during the late 1990s.
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