Halliburton Moves To Dubai to Avoid US Oversight and Taxes

[Luke_Wilbur]

How can President Bush in his right concience allow a company to drain United States coffers to help Iran?

 

Senate Commerce Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-ND) asked yesterday, “I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Are they trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?”

 

It's an example of corporate greed at its worst. This is an insult to the US soldiers and taxpayers who paid the tab for their no-bid contracts and endured their overcharges for all these years," he charged. At the same time they'll be avoiding US taxes, I'm sure they won't stop insisting on taking their profits in cold hard US cash." - Senator Patrick Leahy

 

I think it raises a lot of very big concerns and we're going to be looking into it in Washington. I think it's disgraceful that American companies are more than happy to try to get no-bid contracts like Halliburton has, and then turn around and say, 'You know, we're not going to stay. - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

 

The Dubai announcement, which comes at a time when Halliburton is under investigation by government agencies over allegations of improper business dealings, has drawn criticism from politicians including Senator Hillary Clinton. Critics are questioning whether the move is really an effort to avoid taxes and recent legal inquiries.

 

Here is Halliburton's release:

 

HALLIBURTON OPENS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

 

- Chairman, President and CEO Moves to Dubai to Focus Company’s Eastern Hemisphere Growth -

 

Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) announced today at a regional energy conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain the opening of a corporate headquarters office in the United Arab Emirates. Halliburton Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Lesar will move to Dubai to lead the company’s efforts in growing Halliburton’s business in the Eastern Hemisphere, an important market for the global oil and gas industry.

 

The opening of a headquarters in Dubai is the next step in a strategic plan announced in 2006 to focus on expanding its customer relations with national oil companies while concentrating more of the company’s investments and resources in growing its business in the Eastern Hemisphere.

 

Based in Dubai, Lesar will work closely with Halliburton Eastern Hemisphere Senior Vice President Ahmed Lotfy to further strengthen the company’s activities in the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe/Eurasia regions.

 

“As we invest more heavily in our Eastern Hemisphere presence, we will continue to build upon our leading position in the North American gas-focused market through our excellent mix of technology, reservoir knowledge and an experienced workforce,” explains Lesar. “Our talented Western Hemisphere leadership will continue to grow this area of our business.

 

“The Eastern Hemisphere is a market that is more heavily weighted toward oil exploration and production opportunities and growing our business here will bring more balance to Halliburton’s overall portfolio.

 

“This is already a strong market for Halliburton and we are excited to position the company in this key business area,” he adds. “Halliburton continues to introduce innovative technologies, such as the Geo-Pilot® and EZ-Pilot™ rotary steerable tools and GasPerm 1000 fracturing agent, among others, which help to enable our customers to recognize even greater returns on their drilling and production operations.”

 

Halliburton’s energy services operations have recently celebrated key contract wins, expanded service offerings across the divisions, and experienced increased utilization of integrated services and technologies throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. During 2006, more than 38 percent of Halliburton’s US$13 billion oil field services revenue was generated from the Eastern Hemisphere. The area encompasses four regions with more than 16,000 employees, more than 80 percent of which are localized.

 

“I look forward to working with our exceptional employees across the Eastern Hemisphere as we move forward with the increased level of investment in this area of our business,” says Lesar.

 

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. The company will continue to maintain a corporate office in Houston.

 

Halliburton has been active in the Eastern Hemisphere energy services market since 1926, continually growing to now offer a full range of technology and services across the company’s Production Optimization, Fluid Systems, Drilling and Formation Evaluation, and Digital and Consulting Solutions divisions.

 

http://www.halliburton.com/default/main/ha...nws_031107.html

 

Halliburton announced last month that it would spin off its 81 percent stake in KBR, its subsidiary that received more than 90 percent of its Pentagon contracts in 2006. Securities analysts said the move would aid Halliburton's stock price, which has languished at lower price-to-earnings ratios than other oilfield services companies.

 

In recent years the company has become the center of several controversies involving the 2003 Iraq War and the company's ties to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney retired from the company during the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign with a severance package worth $34 million. As of 2004, he had received $398,548 in deferred compensation from Halliburton while Vice President. Cheney also retains unexercised stock options at Halliburton, which have been valued at nearly $8 million.

 

Other allegations of fraud by Halliburton, specifically with regard to its operations in Iraq, have come to light during the Iraq War. The associations between Cheney and Halliburton had led many to speculate with regard to improprieties and profiteering from the war. Halliburton alledgeley falsified the number of meals they prepared and then submitted false claims for reimbursement. Halliburton and its subcontractors contend that billing discrepancies for the dining facilities stemmed from interpretive differences in their contracts, which required them to be prepared to serve a minimum number of meals per day. When they billed for these minimum numbers however, the DCAA countered that they should only be required to pay for meals served. Of the more-than-$200 million in question, $51 million was eventually retained by the U.S. Army Field Support Command.

 

As of 2003, Halliburton was still operating in Iran. CNN, in a report entitled "US companies are operating in Iran despite sanctions," reported that a Halliburton spokesperson told the news agency that HPS helps Iran build oil rigs in the country's south.

 

A key example of Iraqi contract abuses is Halliburton - with Pentagon auditors questioning $1.4 billion of the billings that Halliburton submitted for its Iraqi work. Unfortunately, Republicans have rejected every effort by Democrats to investigate these abuses. The Real Security Act establishes a modern-day Truman Commission to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in U.S. contracts in Iraq.

 

http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...ost&p=20542

 

 

Oh, yeah, and don't forget that Halliburton has been given more than $250 million to build detention centers around the country – our country – with their function "to be determined by future scenarios" (I wonder if this is how the Nazis referred to the building of camps at Aushwitz, Buchenwald and elsewhere?)

 

http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...ost&p=20111

 

Pakistan is geopolitically important in obtaining oil from the Caspian region where Kazakhstan is located. Armitage (whose business clients have included Halliburton's Brown & Root division)) and Dick Cheney in the 1990s had business or consulting interests in the Caspian region (Cheney has been CEO of Halliburton and on the Kazakhstan Oil Advisory Board

 

http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...ost&p=20856

 

Can you say that the Cheney/Halliburton connection does not represent a conflict of interest? (While we're on this subject, what do you say about Halliburton's using an offshore maildrop where there were no employees to dodge paying US taxes and laws so that they could illegally deal with Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya while Cheney was CEO, a position that he got not because he had ANY business experience but because of his government and pentagon connection!)

 

http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...post&p=4614

 

Halliburton has $680m Iraq Contract (Mr Cheney is reported to be receiving anywhere from $160,000 to $1m a year from Halliburton in deferred severance payments).

 

http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?s...ost&p=19359

 

Continued coverup of Cheney's Energy Task Force

 

- Halliburton overcharging the US for gas imported to Iraq - to the tune of $61

million

 

Cheney's possible indictment by a French Court for Halliburton's Nigerian

Gas scandal

[Guest Pissed OFF]

I HATE THESE TRAITORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Halliburton Co. said on Monday all of the commitments of its subsidiary doing business in Iran have been completed and it is no longer working in the country.

 

In January 2005, the company once headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney announced it would not accept new work in Iran but would complete its existing contracts there.

 

The U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed documents from Halliburton in July 2004 for an investigation into the legality of contracts its Cayman Islands-registered Halliburton Products & Services Ltd unit held for work with the state-run National Iranian Oil Co.

 

U.S. companies are forbidden under U.S. law from doing business in Iran dating back to sanctions imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution when student fundamentalists held 52 American hostages for 444 days.

 

[Guest You are right]

I just went on Halliburton's web site and saw the release.

 

HALLIBURTON COMPLETES WORK IN IRAN

 

 

HOUSTON, Texas – Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) announced today that all of its contractual commitments in Iran have been completed and the company is no longer working in Iran. The winding down of Halliburton’s work came as the result of a decision announced in January 2005 that only contractual commitments existing at that time would be honored, and that no new work would be accepted going forward.

 

Halliburton's prior business in Iran was clearly permissible under applicable laws and regulations.

 

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With more than 45,000 employees in nearly 70 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir—from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field. Visit the company’s World Wide Web site at www.halliburton.com.

 

http://www.halliburton.com/default/main/ha...nws_040907.html

[Guest What you don't know to you l]

General Electric and another Houston company, Dresser-Rand Group are still doing business in Iran.

 

I wonder if this has to do with Iran announcing Monday that it`s now able to enrich industrial-scale uranium.

[Guest pitts_*]

I think Cheney told Halliburton to get out before the bombs start dropping.

[Guest Just Call him DICK]

I think Cheney told Halliburton to get out before the bombs start dropping.

 

"What we do with respect to Iran and Libya is done through foreign subsidiaries, totally in compliance with US law. If you're a big multinational that's able to incorporate around the world, you don't have to worry." - Richard B. Cheney, This Week, ABC News, July 30, 2000.

[Karl Rudder]

"What we do with respect to Iran and Libya is done through foreign subsidiaries, totally in compliance with US law. If you're a big multinational that's able to incorporate around the world, you don't have to worry." - Richard B. Cheney, This Week, ABC News, July 30, 2000.

 

 

I am looking forward to seeing the depth of the upcoming House and Senate hearings on Halliburton.

This issue is the most profitable legal hustle that I could ever have dreamed of. A corporation receives 21 billion dollars in American contracts and then suddenly decides it will move its entire operation to a foreign country so that they won't be under much control nor will they have to pay taxes on those contracts.

[BlingBling]

A private contractor working overseas is only accountable when war has been declared. Therefore, the situation may arise where the contractor is not accountable, because the conflict is not an officially declared war. But, that still does not make it right.

 

Haliburton stock market has been reduced from $47 to $44. Haliburton is listed as (HAL.NYS). Maybe if people stop buying their stock they will take responsibility for their actions.

Edited April 12, 2007 by BlingBling