LAT: U.S. Investigates Oil Firms' Deals in West Africa

[Snazzy]

THE WORLD
U.S. Investigates Oil Firms' Deals in West Africa

Sources say real estate purchase and leases in Equatorial Guinea may have improperly benefited the nation's president.

By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have been looking into American oil companies' real estate dealings in Equatorial Guinea to determine whether they have improperly benefited the country's despotic ruler, according to sources familiar with the inquiries.

...

Investigators are trying to determine whether oil companies paid prices so far above the market rates that they violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies from bribing foreign government officials, sources told The Times.

Marathon Oil Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed that company officials had met with Senate investigators, but would not provide details. Both firms said their dealings in Equatorial Guinea had been proper and lawful.

Interest in the land deals grew out of a money-laundering inquiry involving accounts held by Equatorial Guinea at Riggs Bank in Washington. The biggest account contained hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues deposited by American oil companies operating in the country.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oil22may22,1,886753.story?coll=la-headlines-world

(not yet on Yahoo, so you're stuck with LAT login)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Translation:

Scouting the potential area to see if it has "vital importance."

[Snazzy]

2. Just a reminder that this is the Bushco. linked bank

(Jonathan Bush) and also related to the recent "rent a coup" plane which was being discussed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=557727

among some other places on the forum.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Pinochet and Riggs what a combo

from Snazz


Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, bhad $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,2763,409367,00.htm...

[Just Me]

3. Sure wish that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was more popularly

enforced. Corporatists have been getting away with corrupt sh*t for way, way too long!

[seemslikeadream]

4. Thanks Snazzy

I've been waiting for news about Riggs.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Equatorial Guinea pigs enter the legal maze

So, if Equatorial Guinea's legal system is still sunk in medieval darkness, South Africa will drag it, even reluctantly, into the Renaissance. One has, grudgingly, to admire the ambition of this project even as one doubts its outcome - and perhaps even its real motives. Certainly it seems that the government's intervention has ensured a public trial. That would make our nationals luckier than the six Armenian airmen also arrested in the coup plot. Unconfirmed reports say they have already been secretly tried and sentenced to jail terms ranging from 15 years to life.

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=233&fArticleId=2084097

did anyone know that there were American airmen arrested in Zimbabwe?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Your quote says Armenian, not American

and they were arrested in Equatorial Guinea itself, not Zimbabwe.

The 15 mercenaries arrested in Bioko were mainly South Africans, but their number also included some Kazakh and Armenian nationals and one German.

http://www.africa-confidential.com/country.asp?ID=17

[seemslikeadream]

8. Oh God thanks so much

I guess it was too late for me to be reading last night!!!!!!!!