Halliburton Leaves USA for Dubai
Halliburton, the gigantic energy corporation (over 100,000 employees in 120 countries), is moving its headquarters from Houston, Texas, to the heppest little city on the planet, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Halliburton says the move will help the corporation concentrate on the Middle East oil business. But plenty of others have noticed it will free them from paying U.S. taxes, and also get them beyond the long arm of Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who’s investigating $2.7 billion in suspect Halliburton bills identified by the Defense Contract Audit Agency.
Halliburton War Profiteers
Halliburton’s Iraq War contracts have brought the company more than $13 billion in profits. Subsidiary Kellogg-Brown & Root (KBR) has Iraq War contracts valued at $18 billion. These include the no-bid “Restore Iraqi Oil” contract worth $7 billion. The US Department of Defense has tracked KBR marking up to 55% of their cost as “overhead”.
Halliburton, whose very name has become synonymous with “war profiteer,” has been caught in the following acts:
- Two KBR employees accepted $6.3 million in kickbacks from a subcontractor.
- Over 9 months, overcharged the U.S Government $27.4 million for meals delivered to troops. On average, the U.S. Government paid for 42,000 meals a day but only received 14,000 meals.
- Halliburton charged the government $2.64 per gallon (over twice the competition) to transport gas into Iraq from Kuwait.
- Incorporated a Cayman Islands subsidiary for the sole purpose of trading with Iran (against U.S. law) netting $39 million in profits in 2003 alone. Halliburton has incorporated subsidiaries all over the world to evade U.S. restrictions on hostile foreign regimes, including Libya, Nigeria, Burma, Azerbaijan, and Indonesia.
- Halliburton claimed it earned $100 million extra to hide losses. The overstatement was approved by accountant Arthur Anderson, the firm convicted for cooking Enron’s books.
Halliburton continues to profit from lucrative Uncle Sam contracts, including contracts to help with hurricane Katrina, Iraq reconstruction, U.S. troop support, and a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention facilities in the U.S. for “new programs that require additional detention space.”
Halliburton and Dick Cheney
Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of the company from 1995 until he ran for election in 2000. His severence package was worth $34 million. Although he still has $8 million in unexercised stock options, he’s made legal arrangements for the profits from exercising those options to go to charitable medical and educational organizations.
Read More: Halliburton, war profiteers, iraq war, KBR, Dick Cheney, Dubai
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March 12th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Just a word of advice to those people that have not done their taxes.
DON’T make a few dollar mistake on your income tax return. Go for the big one and claim a refund in the millions and you will get away with it. When you make a minor mistake they come after you with everything they have in their arsenal and will fight tooth and nail to get it.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
The rats are leaving the ship!
A good example of their “nature” in action….for those who tend to believe what they hear more than what they see.
March 12th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
PETE: I think if we have to file a return (which some would argue there is no law saying we do…see Aaron Russo’s film…) then the U.S. government should have to get all that missing money back from Halliburton before we entrust this administration with more money. But, I’ve already filed because, you know, I don’t want to disrupt my life with a 30-year tax evasion prison stint.
Xman: Yeah, I guess that’s one good thing about the country going down the tubes…all the “take and don’t give back” rats are starting to go find another party to crash. Good riddance to ‘em all…to Halliburton, I say, “Get out, and STAY OUT! And take your former CEO with you! Please!”
March 12th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I want to see the federal government tell Halliburton that since it is now primarily stationed in the Middle East, you cannot have contracts with the USA that have to deal with security of the United States.
I know that is a fantasy, but I can dream!
March 12th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Brent: That’d be great, but as long as we’re wishing…I want to see the fed make Halliburton executives dress in orange jumpsuits and pick up trash on the side of the highway to give them a break from their prison cells. Yeah, I’m dreaming too…
March 13th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Speaking of all that cash they load on pallets for Halliburton, etc.. If they can do that for iraqi’s, why can’t they run pallets down to Katrina? Why can’t they run them to all the VA hospitals?
I’ve seen a couple of those hospitals and their systems. The news has only touched on the misery.
March 13th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I’ve been saying to people over this matter that I bet you anything that Dick Cheney is going to move there after the Bush admin. is up.
March 13th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Well, UAE supposedly doesn’t have an official extradition policy, so Cheney’d be safe there, in case 9/11 truth ever gets teeth. Wasn’t the Bush clan buying a hundred thousand acres in Paraguay, too? Now that you mention it, I’ll bet you’re right about Cheney…Halliburton will always be his puppet.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:44 am
PETE
Good point but hard to practice. Even Matha lost a big on small mistake.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I always consider Bush Jr. as Mao so-called dictator in China.
They can say white cat as black cat.
Normal people under those administration is always hard living and miserable life.