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Doesn't this sound familiar?

I had a moment of deja vu when I read this bit at White Collar Crime Prof's blog:

Yet Another FCPA Case - Individual Pleads Guilty

On the heels of a Fifth Circuit Appellate decision affirming a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) conviction (here), the DOJ reports on a plea to a FCPA charge. The press release states that "[a] former executive of a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc. (WGI) has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe officials of the government of Nigeria with more than $6 million in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)." The press release notes that this former executive admitted that "[t]hese payments were offered and made to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (the Nigerian state-owned oil company) and its subsidiary, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, a Nigerian political party, and a senior official in the executive branch of the Nigerian federal government, in order to assist in securing a major gas pipeline construction contract in Nigeria." Willbros Group Inc. had announced the sale of its Nigerian Operations back in February of 2007 (see here).


Jeepers, where have I seen chatter about Nigeria and bribery and corrupt practices before?

Could it have been about Cheney and Halliburton?

Why didn't the DOJ make any formal announcement about the status of the investigation into Halliburton?

Wouldn't have anything to do with a corrupt and weakened DOJ, now, would it?

Can't wait to watch Mukasey ignore this, too, just like Cheney's accessory, I mean, his predecessor at DOJ.

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