For a minute there I thought I had to get off my couch, when all the while the fact is we don't have to do anything much but keep things afloat for just a few decades more! In fact, we'd best shut up about PO, because if our offspring finds out we knew about it all along, they'll turn and wring our necks come 2036!
Joined: Oct 12, 2005 Posts: 281 Location: Washington State, USA
Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: Sao Tome accuses Houston oil company with corruption
This post is a "connect the dots" investigation game.
Hint: First see the movie "Syriana" or at least read the posts in the Books/Media reviews of this forum.
Dot no. 1---The Wall Street Journal reported today that Sao Tome has asked the US Department of Justice to investigate Houston-based ERHC Energy Inc for possible violations of US anti-Corruption Laws
Quote:
São Tomé Seeks U.S. Probe
Of ERHC Oil Deal
By CHIP CUMMINS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 14, 2005; Page B2
LONDON -- The attorney general of the West African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe has asked U.S. officials to investigate Houston-based ERHC Energy Inc., an over-the-counter-listed company that earlier this year clinched a number of oil-exploration awards, for what it said could be violations of U.S. anticorruption laws.
The tiny, former Portuguese enclave, situated in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Gabon, has drawn the interest of large Western companies eager to explore the potentially oil-rich waters around the islands.
In a report probing São Tomé's most recent round of oil-exploration auctions, the São Tomé attorney general's office singled out ERHC for special scrutiny related to a previously negotiated contract the company reached with São Tomé officials over preferential rights to oil exploration in the islands' waters. The report has been forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the situation.
ERHC trades on the OTC Bulletin Board. According to filings with the SEC, its major shareholder as of late last year was Chrome Energy LLC, which in turn is controlled by a Nigerian businessman named Emeka Offor. Despite its small size, ERHC has gained a popular following among some OTC stock traders. A representative of ERHC, reached yesterday in Houston, said the company's chief executive, Ali Memon, hadn't yet seen the report and couldn't comment further at this time. Chrome wasn't available for comment.
ERHC had partnered with a number of bigger, well-known Western oil companies in the most recent round of bidding. Devon Energy Corp. and Noble Energy Inc. have since left their respective consortiums with ERHC. Devon, of Oklahoma City, said its potential share of the project wasn't big enough to warrant its attention; Noble, of Houston, didn't return calls. Pioneer Natural Resources Co., of Irving, Texas, which is still partnered with ERHC, declined to comment. None of the companies has been accused of wrongdoing.
The report, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, doesn't identify concrete evidence of wrongdoing, but says at "every stage" of the probe, "there is the suggestion that ERHC and its parent Chrome may have made improper payments to government officials or provided benefits to their families in order to secure the assistance of such officials in continuing the contract."
In the report, the office said it would seek the assistance of the two U.S. agencies in probing whether ERHC violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Reuters new service Monday reported the attorney general's intention to request U.S. assistance.
It is unclear if U.S. officials have acted on the request. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the SEC declined to comment.
The office of São Tomé Attorney General Adelino Pereira, in a statement last week, said his investigation found that procedures used to select winning companies were "seriously flawed." The exploration rights were awarded by the Joint Development Administration, an agency formed between Nigeria and São Tomé that is handling competitive bidding for the rights to explore acreage that straddles the territorial waters of the two West African nations.
Dot No.2 The US is interested in setting up a military base in Sao Tome which is described in Engdahl's book " A Century of War" on page 265 ( there is a mistake in placing the island in the wrong ocean). The chapter is titled "A New Millenium for Oil Geopolitics".
Dot No 3. BBC report on the US Government interest in Sao Tome:
beat) ...Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of
fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (beat)
Corruption... is how we win."
Dot No. 5 Sao Tome is an island just off the coast of Nigeria.
Dot No 6. ??? _________________ An expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in their field and learned how to prevent them.
Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:48 pm Post subject: Re: Sao Tome accuses Houston oil company with corruption
First off before you run around saying "big oil at it again"
EHRC may be a Houston company but its President is Nigerian....most of the executive are Nigerian. If you know how business is usually done in Nigeria this may explain a few things. Also I need to caution you that one man's view of corruption is another man's view of facilitation.
As well in Sao Tome they accuse everyone with corruption...it is a national sport. Almost all are exonerated after an investigation but it apparently is the way in which the politicians distribute blame and avoid accusations themselves.
Joined: Oct 12, 2005 Posts: 281 Location: Washington State, USA
Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:51 pm Post subject: Re: Sao Tome accuses Houston oil company with corruption
rockdoc123 wrote:
First off before you run around saying "big oil at it again"
EHRC may be a Houston company but its President is Nigerian....most of the executive are Nigerian. If you know how business is usually done in Nigeria this may explain a few things. Also I need to caution you that one man's view of corruption is another man's view of facilitation.
As well in Sao Tome they accuse everyone with corruption...it is a national sport. Almost all are exonerated after an investigation but it apparently is the way in which the politicians distribute blame and avoid accusations themselves.
Sorry, I did not mean to connect any dots yet, or accuse big oil. I was wondering why Sao Tome would bring DOJ into this, and why this story made the WSJ? Your explanation that it is all for show biz to hide behind fits.
I was struck by this real life news article being almost exactly parallel (change only the names and places) to the movie Syriana's sub plot of a DOJ lawyer investigating a small Houston oil firm for corruption, and in the end helping them behind the scenes to keep the oil flowing to America.
Thanks for confirming Gaghan got the oil politics right in his movie. "Corruption is how we win". Thus dots 1, 4 & 5 connect. I didn't know Nigeria was involved when I posted.
If Gaghan's plot plays out in this real life story, then some Sao Tome or Nigerian underling will take the fall, all the big fish will escape, and the money and oil will continue to flow. _________________ An expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in their field and learned how to prevent them.
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