Bribery Scandal Fuels Global Instability

On Wednesday, The Huffington Post and its Australian partner, Fairfax Media — led by reporters Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie — published the results of a months-long investigation of Unaoil, an obscure firm that helps big multinational corporations win contracts in areas of the world where corruption is common.

Hundreds of major international corporations — including Halliburton, its former subsidiary KBR, Rolls-Royce and Samsung — counted on Unaoil to secure lucrative contracts in Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, and other countries in Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union, tens of thousands of internal emails and documents reveal.

Bribery Scandal Fuels Global Instability

The article from Sydney Morning Herald is:

World's Biggest Bribe Scandal
(theage.com.au)

A massive leak of confidential documents has for the first time exposed the true extent of corruption within the oil industry, implicating dozens of leading companies, bureaucrats and politicians in a sophisticated global web of bribery and graft.

After a six-month investigation across two continents, Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post can reveal that billions of dollars of government contracts were awarded as the direct result of bribes paid on behalf of firms including British icon Rolls-Royce, US giant Halliburton, Australia’s Leighton Holdings and Korean heavyweights Samsung and Hyundai.

The investigation centres on a Monaco company called Unaoil, run by the jet-setting Ahsani clan. Following a coded ad in a French newspaper, a series of clandestine meetings and midnight phone calls led to our reporters obtaining hundreds of thousands of the Ahsanis’ leaked emails and documents.

I'm sure this will get MUCH bigger as they learn more. Sadly our governments have been so corrupted by these bastards that there is no accountability left. A company like KBR bribes to get lucrative contracts then pays off Congress to get the laws it wants passed.

The report:

U.S. Oil Industry Giant Paid Millions To A Company At The Center Of Huge Corruption Scandal

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

A massive leak of confidential documents has for the first time exposed the true extent of corruption within the oil industry, implicating dozens of leading companies, bureaucrats and politicians in a sophisticated global web of bribery and graft.

When the politicians say "we" , they don't mean we the people. They mean they and their cronies. Soldiers fight the battles to secure the territory and we the people foot the bill. Its their game, our blood and treasure.

Wait ill change the headline:

Primates swallows more than it can chew.. Researchers found a common trait among primates, when offered food, even though the stomach was full, the primate still swallowed it, and about five minutes later regurgitated.. Of the ten primate examples they all showed this more or less.. However the snow monkey instead of eating the gift, hid the food in a tree..
This concludes that primates in a warmer climate will become more susceptible to gifts, even though the snow monkey took the gift.. It didnt behave in the same way as the other primates.. This shows that evolution occurred in a geographical event during the last five million years..

Im saying, if the culture is wrong the humans in it is wrong..

This is much bigger than your headline implies. Normally Id say try not to embrace hyperbole, but in this case, I think it's warranted:

Source: The Bribe Factory - Major Oil Giants around the world have been uncovered to be involved with bribery and rigging in the world's oil industry

A who's who in the oil industry: Halliburton, British icon Rolls-Royce, US giant Halliburton, Australia’s Leighton Holdings and Korean heavyweights Samsung and Hyundai.

The investigation centres on a Monaco company called Unaoil, run by the jet-setting Ahsani clan. Following a coded ad in a French newspaper, a series of clandestine meetings and midnight phone calls led to our reporters obtaining hundreds of thousands of the Ahsanis’ leaked emails and documents.

The trove reveals how they rub shoulders with royalty, party in style, mock anti-corruption agencies and operate a secret network of fixers and middlemen throughout the world’s oil producing nations.

Corruption in oil production - one of the world's richest industries and one that touches us all through our reliance on petrol - fuels inequality, robs people of their basic needs and causes social unrest in some of the world's poorest countries. It was among the factors that prompted the Arab Spring.

Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post today reveal how Unaoil carved up portions of the Middle East oil industry for the benefit of western companies between 2002 and 2012.

In part two we will turn to the impoverished former Russian states to reveal the extent of misbehaviour by multinational companies including Halliburton. We will conclude the three-part investigation by showing how corrupt practices have extended deep into Asia and Africa.

This is big, very big. It's a smoking gun apparently to show the oil companies, or at least people operating on behalf of their interests are responsible for the Arab Spring. Maybe at the end of this, if its properly uncovered, and prosecuted (wait, who are we kidding?)....okay, if its properly "heard" as in, hearings that seek out the truth but don't punish anyone, maybe we will hear just how involved they are.

The idea that a former head of the CIA and his son, two former presidents, but also very aligned with oil interests, may have had prior knowledge about 9.11 and done nothing about it, or even that someone actively worked against stopping a planned attack, suddenly might appear less impossible, depending on the scope of what's uncovered in this leak.

a reply to: boncho

I felt the source headline to be pretty underwhelming too, given the scope of the scandal and its potential to destabilize governments.

Funny I don't see PetroChina the worlds only trillion dollar oil company mentioned.

Or OPEC mentioned since 'terrorists' is the middle easts version of pmc's (black water).

PetroChina is the worlds giant.

a reply to: sosruko

Terrence McKenna

Culture is our operating system.

a reply to: onequestion

it sure is, the foundation of every society.. But the aspect of having a cultural dogma is that the end needs to justify the means.. If the end is anything within the primate reptilian brain.. Well, then the cultural dogma has no use..

If the illusion of our world is nothing more than playing a few players a set of good cards, i will vote for evolution..

So, we paid the banks off in '08/09, then LIBOR happened and they were let off, again. That happened.

Why is this any different? What would happen if lawsuits were engaged? A few lackeys thrown under the bus and the guys who actually did this get off with millions, or billions, of dollars?

Does anyone really expect anything to come from this? Maybe I'm too cynical but I would bet that absolutely not a damned thing will come of this.

Too big to fail, right?

I'm actually mixed on this. I'm obviously against corruption but it seems that the only way to do business in certain countries is through corruption.

how in the world has this post not made it to the front page???

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awful

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Corruption in big business? Who'd have thought it!

This is no surprise to me, and its nothing new either. I doubt anything will be done about it, except perhaps a few token scapegoats if the public demand action.